‘I’ve been known as worse,’ the White Home adviser mentioned.
White Home senior financial adviser Peter Navarro dismissed insults that have been publicly made by tech entrepreneur and fellow Trump adviser Elon Musk because the administration continues to make bulletins on tariffs.
“Though he known as you a ’moron‘ and ’dumber than a sack of bricks?’” the NBC anchor requested him. “I’ve been known as worse,” Navarro replied.
“Every little thing’s nice with Elon. And look, Elon is doing an excellent job along with his workforce with waste, fraud, and abuse,” Navarro mentioned, referring to efforts with the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE).
That work, he added, is “an amazing contribution to America, and no man doing that type of factor must be topic to having his automobiles firebombed by crazies,” referring to the rash of vandalism towards Tesla automobiles and dealerships in current weeks in response to Musk’s involvement with DOGE.
Earlier this yr, President Donald Trump tapped Musk to assist with DOGE to downsize the federal workforce and minimize authorities spending. Musk is at present working as a particular authorities worker, which suggests he must go away his place after 130 days.
Trump on April 2 introduced a broad vary of tariffs earlier than rescinding a variety of them final week, conserving intact 10 p.c baseline duties on almost each nation besides China. Navarro has been a significant proponent of the tariffs, defending the insurance policies in a number of media interviews in current days.
However earlier this month, the Tesla CEO appeared uneasy with the tariffs that have been introduced by the Trump administration and criticized Navarro and his Harvard College training.
At one level, Navarro famous that Musk has mentioned his firm is an assembler, fairly than a producer, and that Tesla automobiles use numerous parts made in different nations, equivalent to China or Japan.
The White Home additionally has downplayed their public spat, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying in a briefing that Musk and Navarro “are clearly two people who’ve very completely different views on commerce and on tariffs.”
“Boys might be boys and we are going to let their public sparring proceed,” she mentioned earlier in April. “I assume it additionally speaks to the president’s willingness to listen to from all sides that he has individuals on the highest ranges of this authorities, on this White Home, who’ve very various opinions on very various points.”
Additionally in Sunday’s interview, Navarro once more defended the imposition of tariffs, which is meant to revive U.S. manufacturing and shore up nationwide safety however has precipitated wild swings in inventory markets.
“Zero tariffs get the American individuals nearly nowhere, notably with a rustic like Vietnam, which sells $15 for each $1 we promote. It doesn’t work,” he mentioned. “The large drawback we’ve got are the non-tariff limitations, the foreign money manipulation, the dumping, the again taxes, and all of that stuff … that we’ve got no protection towards aside from tariffs proper now.”
Reuters contributed to this report.