Just days after Trump launched his trade war, Musk envisions a transatlantic free-trade zone ‘at the end of the day.’
By Pieter Haeck
Tesla CEO and U.S. government official Elon Musk on Saturday backed eventually ending all tariffs and creating a free-trade zone between the U.S. and the European Union, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped hefty tariffs on the EU and most of the rest of the world.
Musk’s comments, made in a video-streamed interview at a congress organized by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and his far-right League party, followed Trump’s imposition of a 20 percent tariff on all imports from the EU.
“At the end of the day, I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally in my view to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone,” Musk said.
It’s a sign of dissent from Musk with the current U.S. administration policy. Musk has been leading cost-cutting efforts in the U.S. government through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and is a close Trump adviser. POLITICO on Wednesday reported that Trump has told his inner circle that Musk would step away from his government role in the coming weeks.
Musk’s Tesla has been underperforming in recent months, and the carmaker’s share price has almost halved since December. The company last week posted a far steeper-than-expected decline in car deliveries in the first quarter, with sales collapsing in several European markets — a sign that Musk’s political activities could impact his companies.
The Tesla CEO lost billions in the wake of Trump’s Tuesday tariff announcement. Telsa relies on imported parts from China, which Trump slammed with a 34 percent tariff.
In Saturday’s interview, Musk also said he wanted “more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America.”
Musk also attacked Europe’s regulatory burden and said it was kept in place to protect some very large companies.
“There are too many rules and regulations that make it very difficult to create a company and do too much to protect large companies at the expense of small to medium-sized companies,” he said. Brussels is “amplifying” that, and “radical deregulation is necessary,” Musk said.
Separately, Musk took an apparent swing at senior White House aide Peter Navarro — one of the chief cheerleaders of Trump’s tariff plans. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Musk seemed to take jabs at Navarro on his social media platform X under a video in which he explained the Trump administration’s logic in levying tariffs during a CNN appearance.
https://www.politico.eu/article/musk-hopes-us-eu-get-to-zero-tariff-situation
“Peter Navarro — one of the chief cheerleaders of Trump’s tariff plans”
The story behind this is totally insane, and would be unbelievable if had happened in any other administration. Here’s a video that goes into detail on it, starting at 6:20:
The ridiculous real story behind the tariff plan that turned Donald Trump into a global disaster
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-ridiculous-real-story-behind-the-tariff-plan-that-turned-donald-trump-into-a-global-disaster/vi-AA1CkJw9
tl/dr:
• In trumpkov’s first campaign, he didn’t really have any formal economic advisors.
• trumpkov asked his son-in-law to find him an economic advisor.
• Jared went on the Amazoncom website and browsed book titles. (He didn’t read any; just looked at titles.)
• He found a title that he thought was cool, “Death by China”, co-authored by Peter Navarro.
• Jared cold-called Navarro, who agreed to join the team as an economic advisor.
• Navarro’s support for his aggressive pro-tariff policy was a supposed economics expert, Ron Vara, who Navarro cited in at least 1/2 dozen of his books – including “Death by China”.
• Except, Navarro’s expert, “Ron Vara”, was made up. “Ron Vara” is an anagram of “Navarro”.
“Ron Vara” is a dangerous nutter who bangs on about “globalists” like the deranged Alex Jones. No mainstream economist agrees with his drivel. So of course he gets to work for Krasnov.