Elon Musk made personal, repeated attempts to try to get Donald Trump to back off from the wave of global tariffs that have created turmoil in international markets, it was reported on Tuesday.
Musk’s failure to get Trump to listen, however, is evidence to some observers of a growing rift between the US president and the world’s richest person, who has been leading the White House’s efforts to curb federal spending as head of the unofficial department of government efficiency (Doge).
Two sources confirmed to the Washington Post that Musk had made a number of personal approaches to Trump over the weekend to try to persuade him to reverse the slate of trade tariffs he announced last Thursday on a vast number of countries, many of them longstanding US allies.
Their imposition tanked stock markets worldwide on Monday, wiped trillions of dollars from the values of numerous companies, and dinged the wealth of several billionaire friends of Trump, including Musk, a founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X – whose personal fortune fell below $300bn for the first time since last year, according to reports.
Trump’s strategy has also drawn widespread criticism from economists, political opponents and even some members of his Republican party, with a rightwing libertarian group that has been funded by the conservative businessmen Leonard Leo and Charles Koch filing a lawsuit against the “illegal” tariffs.
The Post did not publish details of the conversations between Musk and Trump. But the president ultimately disregarded the representations and doubled down on his policy on Monday by threatening to impose an additional 50% tariff on China after it responded to the original trade levy by announcing a 34% tariff on US imports.
At the same time as Musk was pleading with Trump, he was appearing online at a rightwing conference in Italy calling for zero tariffs between the US and the European Union. “That has certainly been my advice to the president,” he told attenders of the far-right League party conference in Florence.
On Monday, Musk escalated an insult-heavy social media feud with Peter Navarro, a key Trump ally and White House trade adviser said to be a guiding force behind the tariffs strategy.
Over the weekend, in response to a video Navarro posted about the administration’s rationale for the tariff strategy, Musk attacked Navarro’s PhD in economics from Harvard University. Musk did the same in a reply to a commentator who praised the Navarro video, writing: “He ain’t built shit.”
More name-calling followed on Monday, after Navarro called Musk a “car assembler” rather than a manufacturer because many Tesla electric vehicle (EV) parts come from overseas.
“Navarro truly is a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk said in one post. In another, he wrote a derogatory term for somebody with a learning disability and added: “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Neither the Trump administration nor Musk responded to requests for comment.
The Post said Musk’s opposition to what has become Trump’s signature economic policy “marks the highest-profile disagreement between the president and one of his key advisers”. It follows reports that the billionaire will soon be leaving government to return to running his businesses.
Experts, however, expect the split to be amicable, with Musk set to retain close ties and influence with the president as well as on US politics generally.
“Elon is fantastic,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way to Florida on Thursday, saying he wished Musk could stay in government but wanted to return to his various companies.
Tesla, in particular, has seen a sharp drop in sales of EVs in the US and Europe since Musk began his work for Doge. A backlash to Musk’s politics materialized in the form of protests and vandalism at his vehicle dealerships.
The FBI announced in March that it was forming a taskforce to target violence at Tesla sales points and charging stations, which included the discovery of incendiary devices at a dealership in Austin, Texas, and the arrest of a man in West Palm Beach, Florida, who allegedly tried to use an SUV to strike a group of protesters.
Shares in Tesla were trading at $233.29 at market close on Monday, Reuters reported, down more than 42% since the beginning of the year.
More trouble for Musk could be looming in Washington DC over potential conflicts of interest involving SpaceX, a key Nasa contractor.
The Democratic congressmen Gerald Connolly and Maxwell Frost have written to Nasa’s chief legal officer seeking information about $38bn in government contracts awarded to SpaceX at a time when Musk’s Doge is gutting federal spending and slashing jobs at numerous federal institutions, including the US government’s space agency.
“At Nasa, where Mr Musk has both benefited from significant contracts and has the potential to receive vast amounts of new business, his defiance of recusal laws and control of operations directly benefit his businesses,” the Democrats wrote.
“The known conflicts of interest presented by this arrangement are illegal and must be addressed immediately.”
• This article was amended on 9 April 2025. Elon Musk attacked Peter Navarro’s PhD from Harvard University, not his master’s degree as an earlier version stated.
