"He's an idiot… as dumb as a post": Musk takes a swing at Trump's team

On Tuesday, Elon Musk let loose on his social media network X (formerly Twitter). In two rather telling messages, he lashed out at Donald Trump's trade advisor, thus revealing some internal tensions for the first time.

Right hand (unofficial) to the President of the United States, whose electoral campaign he even financed, Elon Musk recently commented on a video in which Peter Navarro, trade advisor, described the CEO of Tesla as a 'piece assembler' from Asia, highlighting that he wasn't a real 'car manufacturer'. "What we want, and where we have a different view from Elon, is that the tyres should be manufactured" on American soil, just like the 'engines' and 'transmissions', he specified in this video excerpt taken from an interview given to the channel CNBC.

And the richest man in the world responded

The American billionaire's response was swift, as on Tuesday he posted: "Navarro is truly an idiot. What he says here is false and easy to disprove," adding that Navarro was “as dumb as a post”. And since two messages weren't enough to calm his anger, Musk returned to the fray by insisting that Tesla, of all the manufacturers, was the one with "the most American content".

In the past, the head of Tesla had already discreetly opposed the radically protectionist policy of which Peter Navarro is one of the main architects, reports the media L'Indépendant. A policy that was reflected a few days ago in the announcement of tariffs against the United States' trade partners.

(MH with Olivia Stasse - Source: L’Indépendant - Picture: ©picture alliance / NurPhoto | Andrew Leyden)