After Trump's tariff policy hit the US stock market, Musk, who had always stood by Trump, finally "couldn't help" but criticize Peter Navarro, Trump's chief trade advisor and a supporter of tariffs. On April 6 local time, Navarro chose to counterattack in an interview with Fox News: "He's just a car salesman."
For Musk, Trump's new tariff policy brought serious losses. On one hand, Musk's Tesla automobile company heavily relies on an international supply chain to ensure production, and the new tariff policy means that Tesla's production costs will significantly increase. On the other hand, the new tariff policy greatly impacted market confidence, leading to a sharp decline in US stocks. The share prices of Tesla and several other companies closely related to Musk have recently plummeted. According to the New York Post, this caused Musk's net worth to decrease by $11 billion.
Musk did not directly criticize Trump himself, but instead focused his fire on one of the key proponents of the new tariff policy, Navarro. On April 5, Musk stated on the social platform X that it was bad for Navarro to hold a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, implying that it might lead to people becoming overconfident and lacking wisdom, and criticized Navarro for "doing nothing at all."
At an online event held in Florence, Italy, on April 5, he also called for Europe and the United States to move toward zero tariffs, effectively establishing a free trade zone across the Atlantic, while promoting the movement of people.
In response to Musk's criticism, Navarro said in an interview with Fox News on April 6: "It was quite 'interesting' to hear Musk talk about building a zero-tariff free trade zone with Europe at first. He doesn't understand this. I think it's very important for Musk to realize that he is just a car salesman, and that's what he does."
Then, Navarro began to bring up how Musk's real interests were affected by the tariffs. Navarro claimed that although Tesla has a manufacturing plant in Texas, "the factory imports many parts from China, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, and other places," implying that Musk's dissatisfaction with him was due to "personal grievances."
However, when responding to Musk, Navarro left some room. He told reporters: "There is no disagreement here. Musk has such a big megaphone on the social platform X, but we don't mind if he says anything he wants... But the American people need to understand, and I believe many of them indeed understand, why we must do these things."
"Musk is doing well in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)... but we also know that his factories in Texas are assembling cars using parts from Mexico, China, Japan, and other places, and he is simply protecting his own interests like any businessman would, but we are more concerned about getting Detroit's factories to use American-made engines to manufacture American brands," Navarro said.
This article is an exclusive contribution from Guancha Zazhi (Observer Network), unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7490473177588482575/
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