Tesla CEO Elon Musk has publicly denounced Peter Navarro, a well-known adviser to former President Donald Trump, over the newly proposed reciprocal trade tariffs that have sparked fears of a trade war. The move has sent shockwaves on Wall Street, resulting in huge losses for investors.
Even though Musk has always been a strong advocate of Trump’s policies, he has never uttered a word in reaction to the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement that is purported to have lost the U.S. stock market almost $2.5 trillion and caused the Tesla CEO to suffer a mind-boggling loss of more than $30 billion, according to CNBC.
A recent tweet on X, formerly Twitter, criticized Navarro, who himself is a Harvard-educated economist. Navarro, first proposed for the role by Jared Kushner, has been a contentious figure, most recently after standing up for tariffs during an interview on CNN. After seeing a clip of Navarro’s statements, Musk brushed aside the Harvard tie as typically ego-boosting and irrelevant to accomplishments. “A Harvard PhD in Econ is a bad thing, not a good thing,” he declared, commenting on the “ego/brains problem.”
Notwithstanding other users’ efforts to defend Navarro, Elon Musk went on to challenge him, questioning his economic practical experience. “He ain’t built s***,” Musk continued, highlighting his lack of true accomplishments.
Navarro’s troubled past includes being indicted in 2022 for contempt of Congress for refusing to obey a subpoena during the investigation of the January 6 Capitol insurrection. He was subsequently sentenced to four months in jail and fined $9,500, becoming the first former White House employee to be incarcerated for such a crime.
During another conversation on X, Musk answered another quote of conservative economist Thomas Sowell once again, this one citing Harvard alumni as the leading cause of all major historical tragedies. Musk just replied with a “yup,” wherein he repeats his shock at how ineffective academic degrees turn out to be in practical administration.
With all the reactions about the tariffs on-going, Navarro does not say anything yet regarding Musk’s biting insults.
