Foreign media reports that Musk "privately urged Trump" to withdraw tariffs but failed, clashing with White House trade advisors: "There's something wrong with his head."

Musk and the Trump administration have a disagreement on tariff policy, and he was exposed today to directly appeal to Trump himself to withdraw large-scale reciprocal tariff measures, but without success. His recent verbal war with White House adviser Navarro has also attracted attention from the outside world, Musk secretly soured that Navarro has a Harvard doctorate, but has not created anything, and Navarro has ridiculed Musk as just a "car assembler". (Synopsis: Musk and Trump turn faces? Attack tariff barriers and support Europe and the United States to build a "zero tariff" free trade area) (Background supplement: Trump: I don't want Musk to leave the White House and return to Tesla, I will try my best to keep it) The tariff policy offered by US President Donald Trump after his strong return to the White House has caused a huge shock in the global market, and relations with various countries continue to be tense, and domestic opposition is growing. Recently, even Trump's core supporter, Tesla (Tesla) founder Musk does not seem to support his tariff policy, today (8) there was news that Musk directly shouted to Trump himself, trying to persuade Trump to withdraw the large-scale reciprocal tariff plan, but ultimately unsuccessful. Behind-the-scenes mediation failed: Musk asked Trump to withdraw the tariff plan According to the Washington Post, two people familiar with the matter revealed that Musk tried to bypass Peter Navarro, Trump's chief trade adviser he recently criticized, and directly lobbied President Trump himself, hoping to persuade Trump to withdraw the aggressive reciprocal tariff plan. However, this effort has clearly not succeeded. Not only did Trump not withdraw the reciprocal tariffs announced last week, but he also threatened on Monday to impose new tariffs of up to 50% on Chinese imports if China does not abandon its 34% retaliatory tariffs on the United States. Faced with a failed lobbying, Musk turned to Platform X to suggest that the United States and the European Union should achieve zero tariffs and establish a free trade area, and forwarded a video of the late liberal economist Milton Friedman, in which Friedman analyzed the source of raw materials for a simple wooden pencil all over the world, stressing: "The magic of the price system brings not only efficiency, but also peace." Musk seems to use this to promote the benefits and importance of free markets and international trade cooperation, and indirectly express his disagreement with Trump's tariff policy, which also undermines the international order. pic.twitter.com/azqwPMa0om — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2025 Musk on the bar Navarro: "Didn't achieve", "Harvard is a bad thing" Musk has rarely publicly attacked Peter Navarro, the driving force behind Trump's trade policies since last week. He directly named Navarro on his social platform X, first responding to a post mentioning that Navarro has a PhD in economics from Harvard University, sarcastically: "Having a PhD in economics from Harvard is not a good thing, but a bad thing." It leads to conceit or brain problems." Later, in another response, Navarro pointed out that "nothing has been achieved." Musk even retweeted a quote purportedly from the American economist Thomas Sowell: "Behind every disaster in American history, there is a man from Harvard." Navarro countered: "Musk is a car assembler, not a manufacturer" In the face of Musk's fierce criticism, Navarro forcefully shot back in an interview, mocking Musk Although he is a well-known technology entrepreneur, "everyone in the White House knows that he is not a car manufacturer, he is a car assembler." Navarro also refuted Musk's claim of "zero tariffs between the United States and Europe", pointing out that the core components of Tesla's electric vehicles rely heavily on suppliers from Japan, China and Taiwan. He stressed that the Trump administration is pursuing "truly Made in America." He criticized models like BMW and Mercedes-Benz assembling European parts in South Carolina as not really helpful to the U.S. economy and national security. Navarro argued that Musk doesn't mind using cheap foreign parts based on "commercial interests," but that the White House is looking at "a strategic level of U.S. manufacturing renaissance." Despite the heated exchange of words, Navarro tried to downplay the conflict, saying it was "no big deal" and even revealing that the two might meet at the White House later that day. Tesla's target price has been cut, Musk's net worth has shrunk by a trillion yuan This dispute over policy lines within the White House has had a violent chain reaction on financial markets. After Trump announced the tariff policy, Wall Street stocks plummeted for days. The S&P 500 fell below the 5,000 mark on Monday morning, briefly down more than 20% from its February high, and fell into a technical bear market. Tesla and Musk, who are at the center of the storm, are the first to bear the brunt. The stock price has plunged more than 11% in the past 5 days. Musk's personal net worth has also shrunk rapidly, and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that Musk's net worth is estimated to have evaporated as much as $30.9 billion (about NT$1 trillion) in the past two days. Market concerns about Tesla's prospects have risen sharply. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities who has long been bullish on Tesla, also made a rare sharp downward revision to Tesla's target price, plummeting from $550 to $315, a drop of 43%. Ives pointed out in the report that Tesla is suffering multiple blows, due to Musk's political stance involved in controversy, a wide wave of anti-Musk and anti-Tesla in the United States and around the world, and Tesla vehicles and dealerships across the United States have suffered multiple attacks. Trump's tariff policy directly impacts its global supply chain and costs, and what is more worrying is that Chinese consumers may launch a boycott of Tesla due to US-China trade tensions, conservatively estimated that the loss of potential global customers may be at least 10%, making Tesla's stock price outlook hazy. Ironically, at the beginning of Trump's victory in 2024, the market once believed that Musk was "betting on the right treasure", and expected the Trump administration to relax self-driving regulations, which was beneficial to Tesla's development, when Tesla's stock price soared more than 50% in just a few days. Now he has fallen out with Trump's core staff because of the tariff policy, and the situation is particularly embarrassing. Related reports Anti-Trump protests broke out in many places across the United States, and more than 600,000 people took to the streets to demand that Musk take away the "dirty hands" involved in politics Musk: The US government has no plans to use Dogecoin! After clearing up, DOGE fell 4.1% in the past 24 hours Musk caused Tesla's stock price to collapse by 55%, Xie Jinhe bluntly said: He is the biggest loser in the stock market this year (foreign media exposed that Musk "privately lobbied Trump" to withdraw tariffs but failed, the White House trade adviser: brain problems" This article was first published in BlockTempo "Dynamic Trend - The Most Influential Blockchain News Media".