Elon Musk recently took a dig at Pete Navarro – President Donald Trump’s advisor on trade and manufacturing. Navarro, who is in favour of strict tariffs, recently appeared on CNN following the US government’s recent tariff announcement addressing concerns over the economic impact of the new tariffs.

A user on X shared a clip from the CNN interview where Peter Navarro defended the tariffs and mentioned his Harvard background in a positive light. Elon Musk responded to the post, saying that having a PhD in economics from Harvard is a “bad thing.”

“Here is Peter Navarro explaining the tariffs and contrary to the paid fake expert class that is usually on corporate media, Peter Navarro has a PhD in economics from Harvard. He’s also not going to lie to you about what is happening to a globalist agenda. Notice how he uses specific details instead of blank statements, like chaos agent, and destroying America,” wrote the user. Musk responded to the post, saying: “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.”

When a user replied “Navaro is 💯 correct 😥Phd or n Phd. 🙋‍♂️no PHd here, just been obsessed with trade for quite a while”, Musk wrote “He ain’t built shit”. Another user replied with a quote by Thomas Sowell that reads “In every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of of it”. Musk agreed with the user, saying “Yup”.

Donald Trump’s ‘discounted’ reciprocal tariffs leads to dip in US market

Following Trump’s tariffs announcement, the US market witnessed a steep drop, marking the worst trading week in five years. Musk, along with other major tech leaders, saw a significant decline in personal wealth during the selloff. According to CNCB, the Tesla CEO has lost more than $30 billion post the announcement.