Trump tariffs: Elon Musk calls Peter Navarro ‘dumber than a sack of bricks’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is sharply escalating his attacks on top Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro as he defends his car company and chafes against the administration’s tariff plans.

“Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” Musk, Trump’s top campaign donor, wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.

“Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk wrote in another post.

Musk was responding to Navarro’s contention in a CNBC interview on Monday that Musk is not a car manufacturer but a car “assembler” whose vehicles are made of many parts sourced from overseas.

Days earlier, Musk in a since-deleted X post said Navarro “ain’t built s—.” In a separate post, Musk questioned Navarro’s credentials, writing, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.”

Musk currently works for Trump as head of the White House DOGE initiative. As Trump commits to his staunchly protectionist agenda, Musk has recently signaled his support for free-trade policies.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shrugged off questions about Musk’s attacks on his colleague.

“Whatever,” Leavitt told CNBC’s Eamon Javers. “We are the most transparent administration in history expressing our disagreements in public.”

— Kevin Breuninger and Eamon Javers

Cambodia is being hit with the biggest single nation tariff rate of all, at 49%.

This has major implications for its factories, now in a fight to survive the next few months if the tariffs are implemented, as retail partners freeze orders.

Its one million workers, many of whom are women at the low-end of the global income distribution pie, are facing financial ruin.

But a U.S. trade group that represents retailers reliant on Cambodia says factories now based in Cambodia will “absolutely not” be coming back to the U.S.

Instead, they will seek out alternative manufacturing locations in lower tariff regimes.

Read the full story: Cambodia, hit with Trump’s steepest tariffs, ‘absolutely not’ sending factories back to U.S., says trade group

— Lori Ann LaRocco

Trump says China “wants to make a deal” as his deadline for steep new tariffs draws near, but adds that Beijing has not yet reached out to the United States.

“They don’t know how to get it started. We are waiting for their call. It will happen!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump also held what he described as a “great call” with South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo.

“We have the confines and probability of a great DEAL for both countries.”

— Kevin Breuninger

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says China is playing with a “losing hand” in the escalating tariff back-and-forth between the two countries.

“I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos,” Bessent said on “Squawk Box.”

Other countries appear to be more willing to negotiate than China, he said.

“If they come to the table with solid proposals, I think we can end up with some good deals,” he said, “and part of the calculus of that may be that some part of the tariffs stay on.”

Last night, members of the administration discussed which countries to prioritize for trade talks, he added.

— Jesse Pound

Founder and CEO of Citadel Ken Griffin is taking aim at Trump’s tariffs, calling them a a “huge policy mistake” that will hurt middle-class Americans.

“I am really afraid of us abdicating our role of leadership for the free world,” Griffin said at an event for the 100th anniversary of the University of Miami, per Bloomberg.

“That’s the path we’re on,” the GOP donor adds.

— Erin Doherty

Stephane Boujnah, CEO of Euronext, says the recent market selloff is not a sign of panic, but simply a rotation of assets.

“Since this began, money is leaving the United States to be reinvested in Europe,” Boujnah said in an interview with France Inter radio today.

Investors, he said, are struggling to navigate Trump’s unpredictability, which is making the U.S. “unrecognizable.”

“We are mourning the United States that we knew … which was very similar in values and institutions to Europe,” he said. “Now it looks more like an emerging country.”

Euronext operates markets in various European cities, including Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Brussels and Dublin.

— Chloe Taylor

Historical allies the U.S. and European Union should have zero tariffs between them, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen urged amid the bloc’s ongoing efforts to mitigate the impact of 20% White House duties it was slapped with last week.

“Engaging in a global trade war is the surest way to achieve a global recession,” Valtonen she said during a press conference, in comments reported by Reuters. “But of course the European Union now has to react to what the U.S. has put forward,

The EU has previously expressed willingness to take steps against Washington if negotiations fail, but it has yet to specify the nature and extent of these potential countermeasures.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Trump will sign energy-related Executive Orders this afternoon, and deliver a speech to House Republicans this evening, according to the White House schedule.

— Christina Wilkie

Von der Leyen and Chinese Premier Li Qiang held “constructive” talks today that touch on a possible mechanism for trade diversion in the wake of sweeping levies announced by the world’s first economy.

“In response to the widespread disruption caused by the US tariffs, President von der Leyen stressed the responsibility of Europe and China, as two of world’s largest markets, to support a strong reformed trading system, free, fair and founded on a level playing field,” according to an EU readout, which added that von der Leyen called for a “negotiated resolution to the current situation” that avoids escalation.

“The leaders discussed setting up a mechanism for tracking possible trade diversion and ensuring any developments are duly addressed,” the readout said.

Speculation has been mounting whether Trump’s protectionist agenda will push U.S. trade partners toward China in a bid to redress commercial relations.

The conversation between the Beijing administration and the EU chief takes place after Washington last Wednesday slapped China and the EU with reciprocal tariffs of 34% and 20%, respectively. Beijing has already retaliated with its own 34% levies on the U.S., which is now threatening further countermeasures.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, will testify before the Senate Finance Committee today at a hearing on “The President’s 2025 Trade Policy Agenda.”

Greer’s testimony will offer the Senate one of its first opportunities to question a Trump administration official about the president’s trade and tariff policy since Trump unveiled the sweeping new tariff regime.

The hearing will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET, and CNBC.com will stream the hearing on our liveblog.

— Christina Wilkie

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit China and Vietnam later this week, as Europe prepares to absorb the impacts of a new 20% tariff rate.

Sanchez is scheduled to visit Hanoi on Wednesday, the same day the new Trump tariff rates go into effect. Then he will go to Beijing, according to his office.

The visit underscores the pressure on EU bloc countries like Spain to reassess their trade relationships in the wake of Trump’s tariffs.

— Christina Wilkie