WASHINGTON — Elon Musk on Tuesday blasted President Donald Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, as a "moron" and "dumber than a sack of bricks" in a spat that underscores the discord among the president's top allies over his sweeping tariffs set to go into effect this week.
During a CNBC interview Monday, Navarro took a shot at Musk, saying the billionaire Tesla CEO is "not a car manufacturer" but a "car assembler" who obtains cheap parts for Tesla vehicles from abroad.
"We all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon's a car manufacturer, but he's not a car manufacturer. He's a car assembler, in many cases," Navarro said.
He said that at Musk's Tesla plant in Texas, a portion of the engines — at least for electric vehicles — contain batteries that come from Japan and China and other electronics are imported from Taiwan.
"The difference is, in our thinking and Elon's on this, is that we want the tires made in Akron. We want the transmissions made in Indianapolis. We want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw. And we want the cars manufactured here," Navarro said.
He went on to suggest that acquiring car parts from foreign countries is "bad for our economics" and "bad for our national security."
"We want them to come here and with Elon, it's fine. He's a car man. He's a car person. That's what he does. And he wants the cheap foreign parts. And we understand that, but we want 'em home," said Navarro, who added "and everything's good with Elon."
Replying to an X post of the Navarro interview, Musk said that Navarro is "truly a moron."
"What he says here is demonstrably false," Musk wrote in one post, adding in another post that Tesla "has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks." He later sarcastically apologized, saying the comparison "was so unfair to bricks.”
Musk broke with Trump on Saturday on the tariffs, saying at an event that he wants to see a "zero-tariff situation" between the U.S. and Europe.
Navarro responded to Musk's comments during an interview with Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," saying: "It was interesting to hear Elon Musk at the beginning talk about a zero-tariff zone with Europe. He didn’t understand that. The thing that’s, I think, important about Elon to understand, he sells cars."
Asked if there was an internal rift between the two Trump advisers, Navarro said that there is "no rift here." He added, "We don’t mind him saying whatever he wants, but just the American people need to understand that we understand what that’s all about. It’s fine."
Navarro, a longtime ally of the president, butted heads with other White House officials during Trump's first term, but has remained a key part of Trump's inner circle over the years.
"He went to jail for President Trump. I’m not sure how much more you could show loyalty, which is what President Trump values," a former Trump adviser told NBC News. "Sure, Elon is his guy and they get along great, but there is just another level there" with Navarro.
"If this turns out to be an all-out war, I very much doubt Peter is the one who is going to come out on the wrong end of it," the former adviser said. "I really wish it was not so public and am not sure how exactly it will play out, but I know that the president very much values what Peter did for him."
Navarro served four months in federal prison last year after he was convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Hours after his release from prison in July, he took the stage at the Republican National Convention and fiercely defended Trump.
Asked Tuesday about the apparent beef between Musk and Navarro, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, "These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reacted to the dispute on the Senate floor. “The chaos within the Trump administration was shown a few minutes ago when Elon Musk called Peter Navarro, the chief architect of these tariffs, a moron. That’s Musk’s word. He called him a moron,” Schumer said.
“Their plan is so crazy, so controversial, that this administration cannot get its act together with them calling names about each other, to — against one another, about this tariff plan.”
