Musk spars with White House trade advisor Peter Navarro: ‘Dumber than a sack of bricks’

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, clashed on social media with White House Senior Counselor Peter Navarro on Tuesday after Navarro commented in a Monday interview that Tesla is a car "assembler" rather than a manufacturer.

"Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks," Musk posted on X on Tuesday.

"Navarro is truly a moron," Musk added in another post. "What he says here is demonstrably false."

Both Musk and Navarro were key advisors to former President Trump, with Navarro having served as the director of the White House National Trade Council and the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy during Trump’s first term.

Currently, Musk is leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to reduce government waste and spending, holding the position of "special government employee" for a limited term. This role allows him to work on short-term projects for up to 130 days within a 365-day period, which will expire at the end of May.

The dispute between the two advisors comes just days after the Trump administration introduced new tariffs. These include a baseline 10% duty on all imports to the U.S., with additional tariffs for countries imposing higher tariffs on American goods.

Meanwhile, Musk is a proponent of free trade policies.

Navarro had said in his interview that Musk is a "car person" who seeks "cheap, foreign parts."

"When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon is a car manufacturer, but he's not a car manufacturer," Navarro stated. "He's a car assembler."

Neither Musk nor Navarro could be reached for comment by Fox News Digital.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the dispute, calling it an example of the administration's transparency.

"Whatever," Leavitt said, as reported by CNBC. "We are the most transparent administration in history, expressing our disagreements in public."

Fox News Digital was referred to Leavitt's comment for further response when it asked for the White House’s perspective.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., weighed in, claiming the incident revealed "chaos" within the Trump administration.

"The chaos within the Trump administration was shown a few minutes ago when Elon Musk called Peter Navarro, the chief architect of these tariffs, a moron," Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "That's Musk's word. He called him a moron. Their plan is so crazy, so controversial, that this administration cannot get its act together with them calling names about each other to go against one another about this tariff plan."

This article was reported by journalist Jimmy.