Musk again distances himself from Trump tariffs by scoffing at Lutnick’s attempt to explain duties on penguin island
Tesla and X boss Elon Musk has continued to take jabs at Trump officials defending the president’s new tariffs, appearing to want to distance himself from the controversial policy that has been roiling world markets.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs have tanked global markets, and the ultra-wealthy like Musk have been feeling the blow. According to a CNBC analysis, Musk has lost just over $30bn since Trump announced his tariffs. On Sunday, stock futures were down across the big three indexes, and analysts predicted that U.S. markets would open lower on Monday.
That loss and continuing volatility may explain why Musk has been taking pot shots at Trump officials like U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and one of the architects of the president’s tariff plan, Peter Navarro.
On Sunday, Lutnick made the rounds on cable news and was questioned over why the Trump administration felt the need to slap 10 percent tariffs on the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are located off the coast of Antarctica and are inhabited only by penguins.
Lutnick defended the move as not only reasonable, but necessary, claiming that other countries would otherwise try to use places like the uninhabited islands to find ways to skirt Trump’s tariffs.
“If you leave anything off the list, countries that try to arbitrage America try to go through those countries to get to us,” Lutnick said during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.
An X user shared Lutnick’s argument, which drew a response from Musk, who simply said “this is funny” along with a laughing emoji.
Earlier, Musk went after Trump’s trade czar, Navarro.
On X, which Musk owns, he took swipes at Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist who advises Trump on trade. Navarro who was originally tapped for a spot in the White House by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is the author of books on China and the economic threats he says the nation poses to the U.S.
A user on X posted a video from CNN in which Navarro defends the tariffs, noting positively that he went to Harvard. Musk took issue with that, calling it a “bad thing.”
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” he wrote. “Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
Another user replied, insisting that Navarro was correct in his defense, but Musk rejected that and questioned Navarro’s practical economic experience.
“He aint built s***,” Musk wrote.
On Saturday, Musk wasn’t throwing bombs at Trump officials, but he did make clear he was opposed to the administration’s current trade strategy. During a video address posted to X, Musk said he wanted to see the U.S. and Europe move to a “zero tariffs situation.”
