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Billionaire Elon Musk's latest comment on tariffs appeared to split from President Donald Trump's administration as he claimed he was hoping for a "zero tariff situation" between the United States and Europe.
Musk, a staunch supporter of Trump who was initially put in charge to lead his newly launched Department of Government Efficiency, shared a post in which he made public swipes against trade adviser Peter Navarro, widely seen as one of the top architects of the president's tariff plan, after the stock market crash that led to $11 billion of his net worth being lost.
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem,” Musk wrote on Saturday in response to another user touting Navarro's explanations of the tariffs.
Another X user argued that Navarro was "correct," which led to Musk responding that the trade adviser "ain't built s**t."
Last Wednesday (April 2), Trump announced that the U.S. would impose trade barriers on American exports as part of sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs on other countries, which he dubbed "Liberation Day."
"For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far. ... Foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream," Trump said via Yahoo! News.
"But it is not going to happen anymore," he continued. "Reciprocal — that means they do it to us, and we do it to them. Very simple. Can't get any simpler than that."
The United States stock market experienced a significant downturn as the tariffs and trade wars were initiated, seeing the largest decline since the 2020 stock market crash influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic during Trump's first of two non-consecutive presidential terms.