Posted on 04/08/2025 9:39:37 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
Billionaire Elon Musk escalated his attacks against White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Tuesday, calling him a “moron” who’s “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Musk, 53, responded Tuesday to the trade adviser’s suggestion on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday that the Tesla boss was “not a car manufacturer” but “a car assembler,” pointing to the electric vehicle company’s importing of batteries and other key components to manufacture its cars.
“Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk wrote on X, adding in a subsequent post in which he tagged the “Re—d Finder”: “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
“By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content.” Musk continued. “Navarro should ask the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara.”
In his screed against Navarro, Musk cited a Cars.com study of 338 cars in 2023 that concluded Tesla had four of the top five American-made cars. However, that study counted Canada as part of the US.
Musk also later bashed Navarro as “Peter Retardo.”
Over the weekend, Musk had first taken swipes against Navarro, 75, seemingly irked by President Trump’s onslaught of tariffs last week that Navarro played a pivotal role in crafting.
Musk had chided Saturday that Navarro’s Harvard education — he holds a master’s and Ph.D. from the Ivy League university — “is a bad thing, not a good thing,” prompting the trade adviser to accuse the world’s richest man of trying to protect his own interest.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Peter Navarro invented an expert named "Ron Vara" who he's cited a number of times. I don't know if he did it facetiously, but the fact is he did it in six of his books and it wasn't widely known to be phony till 2019 when an Australian trade researcher uncovered it.
I don’t know anything about Vara but I DO know that Elon has the facts regarding Tesla. Navarro needs to walk this back or suffer a worse fate.
Elon appears to be getting more insulting and disrespectful to other MAGA Team members everyday. Fine, that he is blunt and outspoken, but posting these barbs and nicknames for public viewing, is not professional, and supplies new ‘ammo’ to the usual detractors.
This is the same Elon Musk who was everyone’s hero a week ago, a month ago, and a year ago.
He’s never been politically correct, or in this case, politically politically correct.
“posting these barbs and nicknames for public viewing, is not professional, and supplies new ‘ammo’ to the usual detractors.”
Funny how Trump posts barbs and nicknames and everyone thinks that’s cool.
Anagram of his own last name. LOL.
For an expert opinion, I cite... myself.
Well, in his defense, ChatGPT wasn’t available when he wrote those books.
to his own team?
Navarro is the trade advisor
Musk should stay in his lane
Hmm, I thought Teslas were in his lane.
I find it very difficult to believe Musk is doing this without consulting Trump first. It could be a way to keep blowback from the tariffs off of Trump, or perhaps even to set up a Navarro exit if things stay dicey in the markets.
Time to send Elon back to So Africa.
The way I look at it, is if you are going on CNBC or MSNBC, it is the same as CNN. Why give access to those who hate you? There are plenty of blogs and of course Rumble, where you can go to express yourself. Let the others die on the vine.
That’s a horrible thing to think about Trump.
Navarro is as loyal a soldier as Trump has.
Well, that’s different. Trump, being ‘rock bottom blunt’ at times is a big reason he was election. We like that about him. He’s President, so it’s kind of his ‘show’. Trump sets his own guardrails. Elon, meanwhile, is supposedly working in ways that will benefit or support this ‘Show’ or this Admin policy.
Some form of ‘Elon Containment’ will be necessary, due to his tendancy to run off to “X”, blab inside information and complain to the public, when he encounters other strong points of view in Trump’s team.
At least they aren't "Assembled in Mexico".
AI: Tesla batteries are manufactured in Japan, China, and the United States. The vast majority of the batteries are sourced from Japan and China. The Chinese company CATL is the world’s largest EV battery supplier and supplies Tesla with the batteries used to make Tesla cars in the Shanghai factory.
I can understand and appreciate your point of view, but I like that Musk speaks his mind and doesn’t dance like a puppet on a string. I think that gives him more credibility when he speaks out in support of Trump and his policies.
It seems we have a friendly (I hope) difference of opinion. It looks like Trump and Musk do, too. No two sane and healthy people agree on absolutely everything.
Very cute comment. Trying to drive wedge in the MAGA team? Who pays you? You are an obvious paid "influencer". We used to call them trolls.
Absolutely, our difference of opinion is a friendly one.
That’s one of many things I like about posting on FR.
Top ‘O The Morning to ya!
Another thing he was Hillary’s economic advisor where his ideas were disastrous had they been implemented. Basing the rate of tariffs on trade deficits is insane.
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