Washington DC [US], April 8 : Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who heads the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), had appealed to American President Donald Trump to reconsider the retaliatory import tariffs, the Washington Post reported, citing sources.
According to the US daily, Musk's attempted intervention was unsuccessful and the CEO of X and Tesla also disagreed with other high-ranking Washington officials on issues such as migrant visas and DOGE's approach to government spending, The Washington Post pointed out citing two people familiar with the matter.
The newspaper recalled that on April 5, Musk criticized White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who played a key role in preparing a plan to introduce tariffs. "A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing," Musk wrote on his X page, referring to Navarro. This exchange marks the highest-profile disagreement between the President and Musk, the report said
The Washington Post also said that Musk had over the weekend said that he would like to see a "free trade zone" between Europe and the United States. "
"At the end of the day, I hope it's agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation," the newspaper quoted the entrepreneur as saying.
According to Musk, he would like people to be able to move freely between European countries and the US "if they wish." "That has certainly been my advice to the president," he added.
Musk's brother and fellow Tesla board member Kimbal Musk also lobbed sharp criticism at the President over the tariff policies Monday.
Trump had announced a sweeping 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports to the United States, alongside steeper duties targeting specific countries, including India.
Meanwhile, Tesla sales plunged 13 per cent in the first three months of this year, the largest drop in deliveries in its history, as backlash against CEO Elon Musk and growing competition took a large bite out of demand for its EVs, as per a report in the CNN earlier this month.
Amid the turmoil in the global markets following the tariff announcements, US President Donald Trump has ruled out the possibility of a "pause" on the tariffs on countries during negotiations.
During a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Monday (local time), Trump stated, "We're not looking at that," emphasising that the US would continue to pursue fair deals with other countries.
"We have many countries that are to negotiate deals with us, and they're going to be fair deals, and in certain cases, they're going to be paying substantial tariffs. They'll be fair deals," Trump said.
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