US President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro has downplayed any tension with tech billionaire Elon Musk, saying they are "great" despite Musk recently calling him "a moron."
"Everything's fine with Elon, I've been called worse," Navarro said on NBC News' Meet the Press program on Sunday.
"Elon and I are great. It's not an issue," he said, praising Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency, noting that he is doing "a very good job with his team with waste, fraud, and abuse," calling it "a tremendous contribution to America."
In a recent interview, Navarro responded to Musk's support for lowering trade barriers, saying: "We all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon's a car manufacturer. But he's not a car manufacturer; he's a car assembler in many cases."
In response to Navarro's remarks, Musk wrote on X: "Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false," adding: "Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks."
Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has opposed tariffs since Trump's first term, viewing them as harmful to his company's reliance on both US and Chinese markets.
Last week, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also addressed the tension between Musk and Navarro, saying: "These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue."
