United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on his tariffs plan, at the same time as markets crash world wide.
Nonetheless, indicators of divisions amongst Trump’s aides are rising with key ally Elon Musk publicly clashing with commerce adviser Peter Navarro on Saturday. Others have additionally introduced diverging narratives.
Right here is extra about what has occurred:
What occurred between Musk and Navarro?
On Wednesday, Trump introduced sweeping tariffs impacting most of America’s buying and selling companions. This marked a significant break from many years of US commerce coverage and sparked criticism and concern from economists and international locations focused by Trump’s tariffs.
Within the aftermath, the three main inventory indices within the US – the Dow Jones Industrial Common, S&P 500 and Nasdaq – dropped by greater than 5 p.c over the previous week. This marked the largest inventory market drop within the US since 2020 through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Longtime Trump aide and the administration’s senior counsellor for commerce and manufacturing, Peter Navarro, defended the tariffs in an interview with CNN on Thursday.
“The market will discover a backside. It is going to be quickly, and from there, we’re going to have a bullish growth, and the Dow goes to hit 50,000 throughout Trump’s time period,” Navarro stated. As of Monday, the Dow Jones stood at 38,314 earlier than the beginning of buying and selling.
After an X consumer posted a clip of Navarro talking to CNN and alluded to the adviser’s doctorate from Harvard College, Musk hit again on the platform, which he owns.
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a foul factor, not a great factor,” Musk posted.
The primary part of the brand new tariffs – 10 p.c levies on international locations together with the UK, Australia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia – got here into impact on Saturday.
Greater levies that Trump calls reciprocal tariffs are scheduled to return into impact on Wednesday in opposition to international locations together with China and India.
What did Musk say about tariffs on Europe?
The hit in opposition to Navarro hasn’t been Musk’s solely touch upon tariffs in latest days.
On Saturday, Musk – who oversees the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), tasked by Trump to slash authorities spending – joined a dialog by videolink with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the chief of the far-right League occasion.
Throughout this dialog, Musk voiced hopes for “a zero-tariff scenario” between the US and Europe, at the same time as Trump has imposed 20 p.c tariffs on the European Union.
“I hope it’s agreed that each Europe and america ought to transfer ideally, in my opinion, to a zero-tariff scenario, successfully making a free-trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk stated.
Musk – the world’s richest man, who’s CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and the most important shareholder of each corporations – has seen his corporations face setbacks in latest weeks. In Europe alone, Tesla’s gross sales have plunged by 49 p.c in January and February compared with the identical months in 2024, in response to a March 25 report revealed by the European Car Producers’ Affiliation.
Tesla’s share value has additionally stumbled. It’s about half of what it was in December.
How has Navarro responded?
In a Fox Information interview on Sunday, Navarro responded to Musk’s feedback concerning the tariffs in Europe.
“It was fascinating to listen to Elon Musk speak about a zero-tariff zone with Europe. He doesn’t perceive that,” Navarro stated.
“The factor that I believe is vital about Elon to know is he sells vehicles. That’s what he does,” Navarro added, suggesting that Musk’s feedback on tariffs had been linked to his enterprise pursuits.
What had Musk stated earlier about tariffs?
Final month, Tesla warned the US authorities that tariffs may hurt electrical automobile firms when Trump’s tariff targets impose their very own levies on American merchandise.
In an unsigned letter to US Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer, Tesla stated: “US exporters are inherently uncovered to disproportionate impacts when different international locations reply to US commerce actions.”
The corporate added: “Previous commerce actions by america have resulted in rapid reactions by the focused international locations, together with elevated tariffs on electrical autos imported into these international locations.”
On March 26, Trump imposed 25 p.c tariffs on automotive imports and sure car elements.
In response to this, Musk wrote on X: “Essential to notice that Tesla is NOT unscathed right here. The tariff influence on Tesla remains to be important.”
Are there different indicators of splits inside Group Trump?
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick advised CBS Information on Sunday that the ten p.c baseline tariffs will “keep in place for days and weeks” and the upper reciprocal tariffs would additionally take impact.
Nonetheless, on the identical day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advised NBC’s Meet The Press that greater than 50 international locations had reached out to Washington for negotiations to chop the levies. “The market constantly underestimates Donald Trump,” he stated in response to the market crashes.
Additionally on Sunday, CNN anchor Jake Tapper requested Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins whether or not the tariffs are right here to remain like Trump and Lutnick have stated. Rollins didn’t straight reply this query.