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Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to Donald Trump, said he and Elon Musk are “great” after the president’s multi-billionaire business adviser publicly called him “a moron” who was “dumber than a sack of bricks”.
“I’ve been called worse,” Navarro said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press in some of his most extensive remarks about the insults Musk directed at him days earlier. Praising Musk’s role in the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), Navarro added: “Everything’s fine with Elon.”
Navarro’s evident attempt to be magnanimous came after Musk criticized Trump’s proposals for global tariffs, which the president has since set at 10% on all countries, with some nations receiving higher trade levies.
Navarro has had a central role in devising the tariffs. And social media posts from Musk on Monday targeted Navarro, saying he “truly is a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks”. Musk had also previously said Navarro “ain’t built shit”.
Navarro, for his part, had called the chief of the electrical vehicle manufacturer Tesla a “car assembler” rather than a maker.
Asked by Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday about that back-and-forth, Navarro remarked: “Elon and I are great. It’s not an issue.”
Welker asked Navarro if Musk’s criticism of the tariffs that Navarro helped develop won with Trump given that the president paused higher trade levies for most countries for 90 days on Wednesday.
Navarro would not directly answer. Instead, he alluded to his having served four months in prison beginning in March 2024 because he refused to comply with a subpoena from members of Congress who were investigating the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol that was carried out by Trump supporters after his first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
“Nobody should have to come into this government and have that happen or have to go to jail like I did,” said Navarro, who was released from prison in July and then appointed as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing at the White House after Trump won his second presidency in November’s election.
Navarro had also dismissed Musk’s insults in an interview on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt.
“It’s no problem,” Navarro told CNN. “It’s like – it’s no problem.”
Musk has not commented.
Asked for her input on the feud between Musk and Navarro, the White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said: “Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.”
