Elon Musk insulted customs consultants Navarro-the appeased

With his lover course in punitive tariffs, US President Donald Trump keeps the stock exchanges in suspense worldwide. The advisors of his government get into a public small war. At the forefront: Tech billionaire Elon Musk and trade advisor Peter Navarro. The latter is now apparently striving for reconciliation.

Navarro had presented last Monday. The idea of ​​cranking the domestic economy through tariffs comes from him. In an interview, he claimed that Tesla boss Musk was “not a carmaker”, but much more “a car fighter” who simply put together parts produced in Asia.

Musk didn’t want to let that sit on him. On his platform X he struck back undiplomatically: Navarro was an “idiot” and “Dümmer than a sack of bricks”. Musk criticizes the government’s customs course, from which Tesla also suffers. Shortly after Trump imposed the global tariffs, Musk had spoken out to create a free trade zone between North America and Europe – the opposite of what Navarro drives. Ideal are a “zero-inch situation”, Musk said in a video message at the party congress of the right-wing populist Lega in Italy. He is also said to have pushed a milder approach behind the scenes.

Now the trade advisor approaches the tech billionaire and probably wants to smooth the waves. “I have already been called worse. Everything is fine with Elon,” Navarro told the US television station NBC on Sunday.

He also praised Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency Doge. “With his team, Elon does very good work in combating waste, fraud and abuse,” says Navarro. That is an “enormous contribution to America”. So far, Musk did not comment on Navarros.

The department founded by President Trump has released thousands of government employees under Musk’s leadership and structured existing authorities. This is how the Trump government wants to save costs. However, the measures are controversial. Attempts like the abolition of the Ministry of Education are likely to be decided in court.

US media had previously reported on growing tensions in the Trump team. The spokeswoman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, presented the publicly held dispute between Musk and Navarro as men’s habit: “Guys remain boys and we will continue their public strength measurement.”

Sources: “”, “”, X, with material from the AFP news agency