Navarro denies feud after Musk called him a ‘moron’: ‘Elon and I are great’

White House waste and acquisition advisor Peter Navarro insisted Sunday that he and typical authorities worker Elon Musk “are great” contempt nan billionaire’s insults against him successful caller days.

Last week Musk, 53, ripped into Navarro, 75, arsenic “truly a moron” who’s “dumber than a sack of bricks,” expressing vexation complete nan waste and acquisition adviser’s domiciled successful President Trump’s tariff push.

“First of all, Elon and I are great. It’s not an issue,” Navarro told NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

“I’ve been called worse. Everything’s good pinch Elon. And look, Elon is doing a very bully occupation pinch his squad pinch waste, fraud and abuse.

“That’s a tremendous publication to America, and nary man doing that benignant of point should beryllium taxable to having his cars firebombed by crazies.”

However, Navarro, skirted a mobility from moderator Kristen Welker astir whether Musk won an soul battle and persuaded Trump to region sweeping reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.

Musk’s nationalist broadsides against Navarro began successful nan aftermath of Trump’s first unveiling of nan work slate April 2.

Several days aft that announcement, nan Tesla and SpaceX leader publically suggested that Navarro’s Harvard University degrees are “a bad thing, not a bully thing.”

Initially, Navarro denied that location was a rift pinch Musk but dinged nan DOGE guiding unit for “protecting his ain interests.” Later, he jabbed that Musk was “not a car manufacturer” but “a car assembler” — remarks that group disconnected nan billionaire into a fresh of rhetorical rage.

“Navarro is genuinely a moron. What he says present is demonstrably false,” Musk changeable backmost connected X. “Tesla has nan astir American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”

Musk also bashed Navarro successful different X replay arsenic “Peter Retard-o.”

Musk has been a staunch skeptic of tariffs and expressed dream earlier this period that nan US and European Union destruct waste and acquisition barriers betwixt them.

Navarro, by contrast, has been a staunch proponent of much duties to thief combat what he has described arsenic economical cheating by different nations.

“The large problem we person are nan non-tariff barriers, nan rate manipulation, nan dumping, nan VAT taxes, each of that worldly that we person nary defense against different than tariffs correct now,” Navarro argued.

Trump has imposed 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico successful a bid to extract concessions from them connected fentanyl dissemination into nan US. The president has besides slapped a 25% tariff connected overseas automobiles and cardinal components, arsenic good arsenic a 25% tariff connected alloy and aluminum.

A 10% baseline tariff connected virtually each different imports into nan US remains successful effect, arsenic does a 125% reciprocal levy connected China.

On Friday, nan Trump management released a norm to exempt physics devices from nan 125% tariff, but nan president has since clarified that a specialized tariff connected specified imports is coming.

“The problem, interestingly for chips, because this is very analyzable stuff, is that we don’t bargain a batch of chips, for illustration successful bags,” Navarro explained. “We bargain them successful products. So what Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is doing, arsenic we speak, is an investigation of nan spot proviso chain.”