Elon Musk’s ‘moron’ spat with trade adviser Peter Navarro over Tesla tops list of latest Trump team tantrums

Many suspected it would happen. Perhaps the surprise was that it took as long as it did.

This week the man who shone brighter than anyone else in Donald Trump’s White House turned. Not so much on the president, but on an architect of the presidential policy that has plunged world trade into chaos.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro is “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks”, Mr Musk posted on X.

Dr Navarro, who has a PhD from Harvard University, made the mistake of questioning Mr Musk’s anti-tariff motives in a television interview.

The world’s richest entrepreneur is a car “assembler” not a “manufacturer”, who imports batteries from Japan and China and other electronics from Taiwan, Dr Navarro said.

“He’s a car man,” he said. “He’s a car person. That’s what he does. And he wants the cheap foreign parts.”

Mr Musk replied: “What he says here is demonstrably false” and Tesla “has the most American-made cars”. He later apologised to bricks.

‘Boys will be boys’

Even though Tesla’s chief executive has no formal title in the Trump Administration, he quickly emerged as one of the president’s most influential advisers. But his personal volatility, outspoken nature and immense wealth raised expectations that a falling-out was inevitable.

On Saturday, Mr Musk broke with Mr Trump on tariffs, calling for free trade between the US and Europe. As one of the great examples of America’s domination of global capitalism — Tesla operates factories in Texas, California, Nevada, China and Germany — Mr Musk’s company will suffer from Dr Navarro’s plan to relocate automotive manufacturing from cheaper countries overseas back to the US.

The tariffs have personally cost Mr Musk about $50 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

There are no visible signs Mr Musk’s position has upset Mr Trump, who has demonstrated a tolerance for public spats among his team. But it is one of several examples of discord among the president’s men.

“Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

White House visits, cookies

Another important adviser, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has annoyed government officials by proposing policies on television that have not been agreed on internally, including an idea to abolish income tax on people earning less than $US150,000 ($250,000).

Mr Trump has asked why Mr Lutnick visits the White House so often, and has become frustrated at the emotion he has shown in meetings, according to The Wall Street Journal. A former stock broker chief executive, Mr Lutnick visits the White House more than any other cabinet secretary, the paper reported.

Other stories have emerged of unusual behaviour in the administration. The head of the interior department, which manages national parks, ordered staff to bake chocolate chip cookies at work, and demanded some be remade because they were not good enough, The Atlantic reported.

As for Mr Musk, he is reported to have installed a gaming console in his government office. On the weekend, playing an online game called Path of Exile 2, he was criticised by other players for his gaming skills and personality.

“You will always feel insecure and it will never go away,” one wrote, in all capitals.