White House trade advisor Peter Navarro brushed off concerns about a feud between him and billionaire Elon Musk, arguing the two administration advisors had a “great” relationship.
“First of all, Elon and I are great. It’s not an issue,” Navarro said during an appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
The comments come after Navarro and Musk got tangled in a public war of words last week after Navarro said in an interview that Musk’s Tesla is more of a “car assembler” than “car manufacturer” that relies on parts from other countries.
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Peter Navarro and Elon Musk (AP)
“We all understand in the White House (and the American people understand) that Elon’s a car manufacturer. But he’s not a car manufacturer – He’s a car assembler,” Navarro said on CNBC. “In many cases, if you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets (which in the EV case are the batteries) come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan.”
The point seemingly didn’t sit well with Musk, who took to X to defend his auto company.
“Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk said.
“Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” Musk added in a subsequent post.
Elon Musk recently accused Navarro of being a “moron” on social media. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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But Navarro downplayed the public war of words Sunday, praising Musk’s contributions to the Trump administration.
“Everything’s fine with Elon,” Navarro said. “And look, Elon is doing a very good job with his team, with waste, fraud and abuse. That’s a tremendous contribution to America. And no man doing that kind of thing should be subject to having his cars firebombed by crazies.”
Peter Navarro downplayed concerns about his relationship with Elon Musk on Sunday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The White House has also downplayed concerns between them, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt arguing the feud shows that President Donald Trump is willing to hear vastly different views at the highest level.
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“These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,” she said during a press briefing last week. “You guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history.”
