Trump Aide Navarro Brushes Off Musk Insults: ‘Not an Issue’

‘I’ve been called worse,’ the White House adviser said.

Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington on Feb. 4, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

White House senior economic adviser Peter Navarro brushed off insults that were publicly made by tech entrepreneur and fellow Trump adviser Elon Musk as the administration continues to make announcements on tariffs.

When asked about Musk’s comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Navarro said, “It’s not an issue.”

“Even though he called you a ‘moron’ and ‘dumber than a sack of bricks?’” the NBC anchor asked him. “I’ve been called worse,” Navarro replied.

“Everything’s fine with Elon. And look, Elon is doing a very good job with his team with waste, fraud, and abuse,” Navarro said, referring to efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

That work, he added, is “a tremendous contribution to America, and no man doing that kind of thing should be subject to having his cars firebombed by crazies,” referring to the rash of vandalism against Tesla vehicles and dealerships in recent weeks in response to Musk’s involvement with DOGE.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump tapped Musk to help with DOGE to downsize the federal workforce and cut government spending. Musk is currently working as a special government employee, which means he will have to leave his position after 130 days.

Trump on April 2 announced a broad range of tariffs before rescinding a number of them last week, keeping intact 10 percent baseline duties on nearly every country except China. Navarro has been a major proponent of the tariffs, defending the policies in multiple media interviews in recent days.

But earlier this month, the Tesla CEO appeared uneasy with the tariffs that were announced by the Trump administration and criticized Navarro and his Harvard University education.

At one point, Navarro noted that Musk has said his company is an assembler, rather than a manufacturer, and that Tesla vehicles use a large number of components made in other countries, such as China or Japan.

“We all understand in the White House ... that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer, he’s a car assembler, in many cases,” Navarro told CNBC last week. “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.”

That point appeared not to sit well with Musk, who wrote in response to Navarro on social media platform X that “what he says here is demonstrably false.”

The White House also has downplayed their public spat, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying in a briefing that Musk and Navarro “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,” she said earlier in April. “I think it also speaks to the president’s willingness to hear from all sides that he has people at the highest levels of this government, in this White House, who have very diverse opinions on very diverse issues.”

Also in Sunday’s interview, Navarro again defended the imposition of tariffs, which is intended to revive U.S. manufacturing and shore up national security but has caused wild swings in stock markets.

“Zero tariffs get the American people virtually nowhere, particularly with a country like Vietnam, which sells $15 for every $1 we sell. It doesn’t work,” he said. “The big problem we have are the non-tariff barriers, the currency manipulation, the dumping, the back taxes, and all of that stuff ... that we have no defense against other than tariffs right now.”

Reuters contributed to this report.