The great Donald Trump-Elon Musk bond might be about to break because of the president’s tariffs hitting the billionaire’s business, according to Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough.
Stock markets have taken a hammering as a result of Trump’s wide-ranging levies, with Musk’s EV maker Tesla suffering as a result of its links to China—which Trump has hit with particularly harsh 54 percent duties on imports.
Musk reportedly tried—and failed—to convince the president to ease off China. The country has handed Musk grants and loans to build factories there. It’s also where many Tesla parts are built.
Trump’s refusal to play ball, then, constitutes the beginning of the end, according to Scarborough.
“I do think one of the lasting impacts of this may be the ultimate separation, at least from the White House of Elon Musk and Donald Trump,” he said.
On the show Tuesday morning, he added: “Elon Musk is again, based on reporting, just enraged that the tariffs are causing the damage that they’re causing specifically on his economy. It’s, you know, saying it’s dealing nearly a death blow to Tesla and is enraged at the way, based on reporting, that this is being done in such a haphazard way and taking aim at [Trump’s Aide Peter] Navarro and [Commerce Secretary Harold] Lutnick. Navarro publicly, but Lutnick privately as well, based on my reporting.”
“It’s very interesting how quickly that has changed, where Elon Musk is letting people close to him know he’s very upset with the direction that this is going,” he said.
A Washington Post report on Monday was the first to carry the news that Musk had privately appealed to Trump for a scaled back approach to the tariffs.
Musk has dissented publicly, too. On X, he swiped at trade advisor Peter Navarro after he defended the levies. After Tesla stock fell 10 percent by Friday, Musk replied to a CNN clip of Navarro and called him out for not building “s---.” He then mocked his education, saying: “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
