Billionaire Elon Musk criticizes Trump’s tax policy advisor

Billionaire Elon Musk has criticized US President Donald Trump’s Trade Advisor Peter Navarro for the reciprocal tax policy that has caused global turmoil in the past few days.

In comments on social network X on April 5, billionaire Elon Musk attacked Mr. Peter Navarro, who is considered the architect of President Trump’s reciprocal tax policy, according to Axios.

Mr. Peter Navarro is the US President’s senior advisor on trade and manufacturing. In recent days, he and other White House officials have fiercely defended President Trump’s tax policy despite the major impacts on the US stock market.

Responding to CNN on April 5, Mr. Navarro said that the stock market’s decline will stop and will soon grow explosively. An X account reposted Mr. Navarro’s statement in support, noting that the official has a PhD in economics from Harvard University. However, Mr. Musk immediately responded. “A PhD in economics from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Mr. Musk wrote, suggesting that it would lead to actions that are more egoistic than rational.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro (left) and billionaire Elon Musk (right) at the White House on March 14

PHOTO: AFP

When another account jumped in to defend Mr. Navarro, Mr. Musk replied: “He’s done nothing.”

In another article quoting conservative economist Thomas Sowell as saying that “in every disaster in American history, it seems like someone from Harvard is at the center,” Mr. Musk replied that this was true.

Mr. Navarro and the White House have not commented. In recent days, Mr. Navarro has defended President Trump’s tax policy and said that it could bring in $600 billion in annual revenue for the US government, according to CNN.

However, the immediate impact of the tax policy was a plunge in global stock markets. Shares of Mr. Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla lost nearly $18 billion in value.

Prior to his April 5 comments, Musk had been largely silent on the White House’s tax policy. However, on the same day, the billionaire appeared on a conference call with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and said he hoped Europe and the US would reduce tariffs to zero to create a Euro-North American free trade zone.

The billionaire’s comments came amid speculation that he would step down from his role as head of the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in May, when his special government employee status expires. DOGE recently announced that most of the $1 trillion deficit reduction task could soon be completed.