Elon Musk recently responded to criticism from one of President Donald Trump’s senior advisers by calling him a ‘moron.’ This came after Peter Navarro, who serves as the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, urged Musk to assemble all parts of Tesla vehicles in the United States instead of sourcing parts from other countries to cut costs.
Musk, who owns Twitter, used the platform to respond forcefully to Navarro’s criticism, describing him as a ‘former convict’ due to his four-month imprisonment last January for Contempt of Congress concerning the January 6 Capitol attack. “Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk tweeted.
He further stated that Tesla produces the “most American-made cars” compared to other manufacturers like Ford, adding, “Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
In light of these remarks, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt downplayed the situation as “boys being boys” during a press briefing. “These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs,” she stated. “Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,” Leavitt added.
So, what exactly did Navarro express? His comments were made during an interview with CNBC, where he discussed Trump’s extensive tariff policy, which he has influenced.
“When it comes to tariffs and trade, 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 stated during the interview.
He elaborated, “If you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets, which in the EV case is the batteries, come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan.”
Navarro continued, “The difference is in our thinking and Elon’s on this is that we want the tires made in Akron [Ohio], we want the transmissions made in Indianapolis [Indiana], we want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw [both Michigan], and we want the cars manufactured here.”
He further noted, “It’s like this business model where BMW and Mercedes come into Spartanburg, South Carolina, and have us assemble German engines and Austrian transmissions. That doesn’t work for America – it’s bad for our economics, it’s bad for our national security. We want them to come here.”
Concerning Musk’s approach, Navarro said, “With Elon, it’s fine, he’s a car man – if he’s a car person, that’s what he does. And he wants the cheap foreign parts, and we understand that, but we want him home. We want him home for our national security, economic security, and everything’s good with Elon.”