Elon Musk is frustrated. The markets are in chaos, and the tech mogul is losing billions, mostly due to the economic fallout from President Trump’s trade policies. Musk’s frustration isn’t just directed at the markets or his shrinking bank account, though. He’s taken aim at one of Trump’s key advisors, Peter Navarro, the man behind much of the president’s disastrous tariff strategy.
Musk’s company, Tesla, relies heavily on parts imported from China. That’s been a key part of his manufacturing process. But with Trump’s new tariffs — a staggering 34 percent on Chinese imports — the price of these parts went up, and Tesla took a hit. As China retaliated with tariffs of its own, slapping a 34 percent tax on American goods, the markets took a dive, and so did Musk’s fortune.
This isn’t a small blip. Musk’s wealth has been hit hard, and it’s clear that he’s not happy about it. On Saturday, he took to his own social media platform, X, to throw some serious shade at Navarro, the White House aide who’s been one of the biggest supporters of Trump’s tariffs. In a post, Musk criticized Navarro’s credentials, calling a Harvard PhD in economics a “bad thing,”
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem,” Musk wrote in one post. (Navarro earned a PhD in economics from Harvard in the 1980s.)
Musk responded to another user’s comment on the video lauding Navarro’s explanation, writing: “He ain’t built shit.”
The Tesla CEO also threw in a response to a quote from conservative economist Thomas Sowell, who has long criticized tariffs. Sowell said, “in every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it.” Musk’s reply? A simple “Yup,” clearly pointing the finger at Navarro.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that Musk’s public attack on Navarro comes at a time when he’s losing billions — a direct result of the tariff mess. And it’s not just Tesla that’s suffering. Musk has a lot of investments tied to the global market, and with Trump’s policies pushing things into a tailspin, many of Musk’s holdings are getting hammered.
As for Navarro, his economic theories might have sounded good in the MAGA orbit, but they’re failing in the real world. Sadly, it’s not just Musk feeling the burn — the rest of America is, too.
