Trump aide Navarro brushes off Musk insults, says, ‘I’ve been called worse’

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House trade adviser Peter Navarro brushed off insults from Elon Musk on Sunday, saying “Elon and I are great” after a public spat over President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.

Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and close Trump ally, earlier this month called Navarro a “moron” after the trade adviser dismissed Musk’s push for “zero tariffs” between the U.S. and Europe. Navarro had called Musk a “car assembler” reliant on imported auto parts.

Asked about the tension on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Navarro said, “It’s not an issue.””Even though he called you a ‘moron’ and ‘dumber than a sack of bricks?'” the NBC anchor pressed.

“I’ve been called worse,” Navarro replied.

“Everything’s fine with Elon. And look, Elon is doing a very good job with his team with waste, fraud and abuse,” he said. “That’s a tremendous contribution to America, and no man doing that kind of thing should be subject to having his cars firebombed by crazies,” referring to the vandalism against Tesla infrastructures and offices in response to Musk’s right-wing activism.

Trump appointed Musk, the world’s richest person, to slash U.S. government spending and downsize the federal workforce. There has been growing unease across the country over Musk’s blunt approach to mass layoffs from the government workforce. Nearly 200,000 employees have been fired, earmarked for termination or have accepted buyouts.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt this week downplayed the public clash as a difference of opinion on tariffs, saying “Boys will be boys.”

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)