Peter Navarro denies any tensions with Elon Musk despite Musk calling him a “moron.”

Navarro Downplays Rift with Musk Amid Tariff Debate, Praises Tech Mogul’s Government Role

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday dismissed any suggestion of a feud between himself and Elon Musk, despite the Tesla CEO recently calling him a “moron.”

“Everything’s fine with Elon,” Navarro said with a laugh on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I’ve been called worse.”

The comments came in the wake of a heated exchange that followed President Donald Trump’s decision to impose — and then temporarily scale back — sweeping tariffs on several U.S. trading partners. Musk, who has voiced strong support for lowering trade barriers, openly criticized Navarro after a CNBC interview last week revealed policy differences between the two.

In that interview, Navarro noted, “We all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer; he’s a car assembler in many cases,” emphasizing that Tesla relies heavily on imported parts from Japan, China, and Taiwan.

Navarro said the administration wants more auto components produced in the U.S., adding, “We want the tires made in Akron, the transmissions made in Indianapolis, the engines made in Flint and Saginaw. And we want the cars manufactured here.”

Musk responded with a barrage of posts on X (formerly Twitter), calling Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks” and sarcastically apologizing for the comparison — “so unfair to bricks,” he wrote. Musk also pointed out that Tesla vehicles are among the most American-made cars on the market.

Despite the apparent tensions, Navarro downplayed any friction during his Sunday interview. “Elon and I are agreeing. It’s not an issue,” he said.

Navarro even praised Musk’s role in the Department of Government Efficiency — a Trump administration initiative aimed at cutting federal workforce and reducing waste. “Elon is doing a very good job with his team with waste, fraud and abuse,” he said. “That’s a tremendous contribution to America.”

Musk has recently broken with the Trump administration on trade, advocating for a “zero tariff situation” between the U.S. and Europe. Following that, Trump announced a temporary 90-day pause on most of the newly imposed tariffs while negotiations with trading partners are underway.

Navarro defended both the initial tariff hikes and the temporary pause, calling the shift “a birdie for President Trump.” He added, “We’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here. This is unfolding exactly like we thought it would.”

While Navarro did not name every country in talks with the U.S., he listed the UK, European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, and Israel as actively pursuing trade deals. Notably absent from the list was China, which has been hit with steep U.S. tariffs totaling 145%, and has responded with retaliatory tariffs of up to 125%.

“We have opened up our invitation to them,” Navarro said, accusing China of contributing to the fentanyl crisis and offshoring American jobs.

Navarro also addressed recent exemptions to tariffs on electronics like smartphones and computers. He emphasized the complexity of targeting products containing microchips and noted that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is conducting a thorough investigation into the chip supply chain.

“We don’t buy chips in bags — we buy them in products,” Navarro said. “The goal is stability and resilience, and you will see actions taken based on those investigations.”

In a separate interview on ABC’s This Week, Lutnick confirmed that those exemptions are temporary. He said a new wave of tariffs specifically targeting semiconductors is on the horizon.

“All those products are going to come under semiconductors,” Lutnick explained. “They’re going to have a special-focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored.” He said those semiconductor-related tariffs would likely roll out within the next one to two months.

(Source)