By Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As Elon Musk called one of President Donald Trump’s top economic aides a “moron,” the White House on Tuesday declared that “boys will be boys.”
Musk and long-time Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro have been squabbling publicly over Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on most of its trading partners.
The move has triggered a market sell-off and prompted analysts to wonder if the United States is headed into a recession.
“Look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.”
Navarro on Monday on CNBC had dismissed a push by billionaire and Tesla CEO Musk for “zero tariffs” between the United States and Europe, calling him a “car assembler” reliant on imported parts, and said he wanted the parts to be manufactured locally in the U.S. “Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk said in a post on X in a response to a video clip of Navarro’s interview. “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.” Navarro is widely seen as the architect of Trump’s wide-ranging tariff plans. The policy is intended to revive U.S. manufacturing and shore up national security but has hammered markets and thrown global supply chains into uncertainty.
Asked about the dust-up between the advisers, Leavitt said the public nature of the spat was evidence of the Trump administration’s transparency and Trump’s willingness to listen to diverse opinions.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Steve Holland and Sarah Morland; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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