White House press secretary Karoline LeavittElon Musk and Peter Navarro are having over Donald Trump‘s tariff agenda.

‘Boys will be boys,’ she said at her Tuesday press briefing.

Musk and traded adviser Peter Navarro have escalated their fighting over the president’s trade war. In the latest salvo, Musk called Navarro a ‘moron’ and ‘dumber than a sack of bricks’ as tensions between the two exploded over Trump’s tariff increases.

‘We will let their public sparring continue,’ Leavitt said of their bickering, which has played out over social media.

‘And you guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history. And I think it also speaks to the president’s willingness to hear from all sides that he has people at the highest levels of this government, in this White House who have very diverse opinions on very diverse issues, but the president takes all opinions in mind, and then he makes the best decision based on the best interest of the American public.’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said ‘boys will be boys’

The feud between two of Trump’s closest advisers erupted as global markets tanked on the news of the president’s tariffs.

Trump has not personally weighed in about the fight between the two men he thinks highly of.

The extraordinary public row began when Navarro described Musk as a ‘car assembler’ and not a ‘car manufacturer.’ He also claimed Musk’s Tesla vehicles required parts manufactured in foreign countries including China, Japan, and Taiwan.

‘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. He’s a car assembler,’ Navarro said in an interview.

Musk responded angrily on X to Navarro’s claim.

‘Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,’ Musk wrote. ‘Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false.’

The Space X founder waded into controversy on Friday after the markets closed and Navarro appeared on CNN to calm concerns over the damage caused by tariffs.

The Tesla CEO – who is the world’s richest man – personally lost billions in the market’s reaction to the tariffs, which saw the US stock market experience its worst trading week in five years.

But after Navarro insisted that the tariffs would eventually pay off, Musk took to his X platform to mock the economic advisor.

Musk responded to a post that noted Navarro has a PhD in economics from Harvard, to which he said: ‘A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.  Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.’

After a user responded to say that Navarro was ‘correct’, Musk remarked: ‘He ain’t built s***.’

But Navarro has since dismissed Musk’s concerns about Trump’s tariffs, noting it was understandable as coming from a ‘car person’.

‘He’s a car person. That’s what he does, and he wants the cheap foreign parts,’ he said. But Musk was not pleased with Navarro’s claim.

‘By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content,’ he wrote on X.

Trump launched a historic trade war last Wednesday (pictured, announcing the tariffs) and China retaliated with 34 per cent reciprocal tariffs on US imports on Friday

Trump has hailed Tesla as an American-made car, even promoting it at the White House after left-wing opponents started attacking Musk’s company and vandalizing Tesla dealerships and vehicles in the streets.

‘They’re harming a great American company,’ Trump said during the event at the White House where he praised Musk as a ‘patriot.’

‘He’s built this great company, and he shouldn’t be penalized because he’s a patriot,’ he said.

Musk’s brazen break with Trump’s inner circle comes just days after it was revealed that he would be stepping down from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – leaving the Trump White House early in a surprise move.

Musk also made direct yet unsuccessful appeals to Trump to reverse tariffs over the past weekend, the Washington Post reports, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The exchange marked the highest profile disagreement between the President and Musk, the report said. It follows Trump’s unveiling of a 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the US along with higher duties on dozens of other countries.

Musk called for zero tariffs between the US and Europe during a virtual interaction at a congress in Florence of Italy’s right-wing, co-ruling League Party over the weekend.

Trump didn’t respond when asked about Musk’s idea.

‘Europe has made a fortune off us,’ he told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. ‘Europe has treated us very very badly.’

‘They are coming to the table. They want to talk but there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis,’ he added.

Tesla has seen its quarterly sales drop sharply amid a backlash against Musk’s work with a new Department of Government Efficiency.

Elon Musk (pictured during a White House cabinet meeting on March 24, 2025) made direct yet unsuccessful appeals to Donald Trump to reverse tariffs over the past weekend in what was the highest profile disagreement between the President and Tesla billionaire

Trade advisor to US President Donald Trump Peter Navarro speaks to press outside of the White House on March 12, 2025

Economists say the tariffs could reignite inflation, raise the risk of a recession and boost costs for the average US family by thousands of dollars – a potential liability for a president who campaigned on a promise to bring down the cost of living.

But America’s top trade official has today defended Trump’s sweeping tariffs on nearly every other nation, telling Congress that almost 50 countries had reached out to make a deal.

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said exemptions to Trump’s global tariffs are not expected in the near term and argued that the strategy was ‘already bearing fruit.’

‘Nearly 50 countries have approached me personally to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity,’ he told the Senate Finance Committee.

Several countries – including Argentina, Vietnam and Israel – had offered to reduce their tariffs, Greer said, while auto manufacturers were canceling layoffs and companies had announced $4trillion in new investment in the United States.

The annual hearings on the president’s trade policies are often staid affairs.

US President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sit in a Tesla car model S on March 11

President Donald Trump steps out of a red Model S Tesla vehicle on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer takes his seat upon arrival at the start of a Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Donald Trump’s trade policies today

But they have generated more interest this year after Trump last week announced a baseline tariff of 10 per cent and extra levies of up to 50 per cent on dozens of countries exporting more to the United States than they buy.

Greer told senators the US had shed five million manufacturing jobs and 90,000 factories in the last 30 years, since a trilateral free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada was enacted.

America’s ‘large and persistent trade deficit’ will not be resolved overnight, he cautioned. ‘But all of this is in the right direction.’

‘We must move away from an economy based solely on the financial sector and government spending, and we must become an economy based on producing real goods and services,’ Greer added.

Wall Street stocks surged higher early Tuesday after a three-day rout as global markets rallied in hopes of trade agreements.