Lawrence: Musk called Navarro a 'moron.' What does Musk think of Trump who follows Navarro’s advice?
By: Lawrence O’Donnell
This is a very high level view that pretty much anyone should be able to understand.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Transcript:
And so, as we come to the end of day 2 of the Musk versus Trump war over tariffs, Donald Trump... think about this: Donald Trump will be trying to fall asleep tonight wondering when Elon Musk might be publicly calling him a moron. Something I write here, I have to confess to having done myself in moments of rhetorical weakness when my imagination doesn't come up with something more elevated, uh, to use as an accurate description of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s chief trade advisor, Peter Navarro, will be trying to fall asleep tonight wondering if he will serve as many days in the second Trump administration as he served in federal prison for lying for Donald Trump. Peter Navarro, you might recall, tried to get away with the lie that he did not have to respond to a congressional subpoena from the January 6th committee because he was protected by executive privilege. That was a lie. And at his trial in federal court in Washington, D.C., that lie got him convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to federal prison, where he served 120 days. Peter Navarro was a private citizen when he was claiming an executive privilege that did not exist.
Peter Navarro now needs 42 more days in the Trump administration to match his 120 days in prison. And right now, Elon Musk is saying everything he can publicly say to get Peter Navarro fired immediately. Every day of Peter Navarro’s life is now worse than the day before. Yesterday, Elon Musk’s criticism of Peter Navarro was muted compared to today. Musk’s opening line of attack against Donald Trump’s chief trade advisor was, “Navarro is truly a moron.”
When Donald Trump read that, even Donald Trump is capable of seeing how easily the name Trump could be substituted for the name Navarro in that tweet. And if Peter Navarro is truly a moron, what do you call the person who follows Peter Navarro’s advice? Donald Trump has called Elon Musk a genius, and now, according to the Trump formulation, a genius has called Donald Trump’s chief trade advisor a moron, and Donald Trump has chosen the side of the accused moron over the Trump-proclaimed genius.
So, what does that make Donald Trump? There is only one president of the United States in history who would take Peter Navarro’s advice on anything. There’s only one president of any country in the world today who would take Peter Navarro’s advice on anything, and Donald Trump’s personal genius has called Peter Navarro a moron. Even Donald Trump can figure out how Elon Musk really feels about someone who would take a moron’s advice.
It got worse for Peter Navarro as Elon Musk and his brother, Kimbal Musk, a member of the board of Tesla, joined in double-team Twitter attacks on Peter Navarro as the day wore on. That included nastier words than “moron” that I cannot say on this program. Yesterday, Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, directly attacked Donald Trump, saying, as I reported here last night, "Who would have thought that Trump was actually the most high-tax American president in generations through his tariff strategy? Trump has implemented a structural permanent tax on the American consumer."
Elon Musk’s brother is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elon Musk and, as a board member of Tesla, can be fairly assumed to never say a word publicly that Elon Musk doesn’t approve of. And so tonight, Donald Trump is just one Musk away from being directly attacked by the richest person in the world for creating the biggest tax increase in American history all by himself.
And so, as Donald Trump rests his weary head on his pillow tonight, with his hair in whatever protective device he uses for sleeping, he has to wonder, when will Elon Musk turn on me? Donald Trump knows Elon Musk is not a patient person. Elon Musk has personally lost more money to the Trump tariffs than any other person in the world. In the first hour of the stock market’s opening today, another day when Elon Musk lost more money, Elon Musk tweeted, “Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
And then, during the afternoon session, when the stock market was sinking badly and Elon Musk was losing even more money once again today, Elon Musk tweeted, “I’d like to apologize to bricks for calling Peter Navarro dumber than a sack of bricks. That was so unfair to bricks,” to which Kimbal Musk immediately jumped in with a moment of silence, “Please, for all the bricks that have been unfairly maligned when being compared to Navarro.”
So, if Peter Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks, that makes Donald Trump dumber than a sack of what exactly, according to Elon Musk? We might be days or weeks away from finding out how Elon Musk will publicly complete the sentence, “Donald Trump is dumber than a sack of blank.”
And so, Donald Trump is desperately worried tonight. He is desperately worried about the crashing stock market, which has lost $6 trillion in value thanks entirely and exclusively to Donald Trump, following the advice of a person called a moron by a person Donald Trump describes as a genius. And now Donald Trump is worried that the person he thinks is a genius is going to be calling him a moron any day now.
And Donald Trump is worried that he will then lose access to the unlimited amount of political money the richest person in the world has been willing to give Donald Trump and willing to use in Republican politics to threaten Republicans to stay in line with Donald Trump. Elon Musk’s money is the single most important new element in Donald Trump’s ability to continue to hold on to Republicans’ public loyalty. But that Republican loyalty is beginning to crumble thanks to Donald Trump following the advice of Peter Navarro.
We all know just how cowardly every single Republican member of Congress is when it comes to anything involving Donald Trump. And so, it is a hugely significant crack in the wall of Trump Republican loyalty tonight that the most senior Republican member of the Senate, Chuck Grassley, who has never been in favor of presidentially imposed tariffs before Donald Trump was elected, has introduced a bill with a total of seven Republican co-sponsors to limit the president’s ability to raise tariffs without Congress’s approval. So that’s seven Republicans willing to go public against Donald Trump on tariffs, and four more Republicans emerged today in the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over tariffs, taking shots at Donald Trump’s tariffs during a hearing with the person who is supposed to be the president’s chief international trade advisor, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Here is a sample, just a sample of what Republican senators were brave enough to say today about the Trump tariffs.
“If the purpose is to stall on negotiations in order to keep tariffs high for the sole purpose of feeding the U.S. Treasury, I oppose that. Who pays these high tariffs in the short, medium term? It will be the consumer. It will be the consumer. And so, I’m worried about the inflationary effect. I’m worried if there is a trade war, that we’re going to have markets shutting down for American farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers, and I hope you and the president are very sensitive about companies potentially going bankrupt by these actions again. We, we want fair trade, but I hope you recognize, you know, tariffs are double-edged swords. I would argue a somewhat blunt instrument. This is, uh, this is creating some anxiety, uh, this, uh, current tariff posture among some of my constituents in Indiana. Rural communities and, and export-driven manufacturers oftentimes, uh, feel the consequences and they feel the consequences first. Some in Oklahoma, they’re asking me about exclusions and exceptions and how this is going to be. To say we can’t buy it in America. This is the only place that’s actually manufacturing it. I’ll also hear from my producers that the mean tariff being selected to apply to a country may not account that for rice, for example, the tariff is much higher for that particular product. And that it is not adequate to address that which is taking place. I’m assuming this all got gamed out, uh, because it’s a novel approach it needs to be thought out. Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?”
When the day comes, Donald Trump will personally invite Senator Thom Tillis to choke Peter Navarro. The way this story is going to end is Donald Trump is going to back down on these tariffs. It could take several months for Donald Trump to back down. It could take weeks. It could take days. We don’t know, but a year from now, these crazy Trump tariffs will be history, and Republicans will be running away from them as they run for re-election to the United States Senate and to the House of Representatives, and Donald Trump is going to fire Peter Navarro because Wall Street will demand it.
The problem now for Donald Trump is, when does he back down from these tariffs? And is Wall Street an American industry? How will they know that Donald Trump will not suddenly impose those tariffs again? And so, Donald Trump will need proof for Wall Street and for American industry and for Republican members of Congress that he is not going to ruin their lives again with tariffs. And that’s why Peter Navarro’s current high visibility is good for Donald Trump because the more visible Peter Navarro is, the more impactful and convincing for Wall Street it will be on the day that Peter Navarro is fired by Donald Trump. The stock market on that day will skyrocket, absolutely skyrocket the day Peter Navarro is fired, and Donald Trump knows it.
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. If you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets, which in the case is the batteries, come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan. When this is over, Elon Musk will still be a car manufacturer, and Peter Navarro will be unemployed.
Today, the White House press secretary said this about the war between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro that could lead to the complete political collapse of the Trump White House: “Look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Um, boys will be boys. Boys will be boys. Those two boys have publicly lit the match to what could become the bonfire of the stupidities of the Trump White House.”
Last night, former Obama White House Chief of Staff and former Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel told Jon Stewart what success of the Trump tariff policy would look like: “This is supposed to be a manufacturing renaissance. A manufacturer’s gonna come back, uh, good screws, next to Apple phones, as you said. No, no, okay, we’re, we’re, yeah. Elon Musk has a 20,000-person factory in Shanghai, a 12,000-person factory in, uh, Berlin. When those get repurposed back in the United States, this is an incredible success. Until that time, it’s an absolute failure.”
Dan Ives, who has made a lot of money as a strong supporter of Tesla stock for years, has been making the rounds on CNBC and Bloomberg TV this week telling investors what Elon Musk needs to do next: “Look, I mean, it’s our view. Musk basically needs to leave the government. I mean, because if you look at the brand damage, you just cannot deny it. I mean, I think there’s 20% actually permanent brand damage in Europe, 10% at least in the U.S. Unfortunately, Tesla has become a political symbol around the world, but in a bad way, right? I mean, if any frustration toward Trump, do, tariffs globally. There’s one symbol, it’s Tesla. Tesla, in my view, it’s been, it’s been a sad few months to watch it because it’s brand destruction by the hour, by the day, can’t deny it. He has to leave government. You need a CEO, Musk, in that seat as CEO of Tesla. You can’t be spending 5%, 3%, 2% of your time there, and the rest of the government. That’s been the frustration because Musk is Tesla. Tesla is Musk. And to Elon Musk, Tesla is much more important than Trump.”
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What will it take for Trump supporters to catch on?
This is kinda like asking them if God could make a boulder larger than he can move.
... shit.
Pretty sure that is what he was implying.
it's common sense at this point in time ...
About 3 months of tariff induced prices on virtually everything.
I wonder if that will even do it. I can see Trump supporters parroting whatever bullshit excuse Trump comes up with. After all, anyone who is still supporting Trump's insane tariffs is not likely to magically change from an irrational trust in a con-man to thinking critically about these matters.
In a way, I think this is what they wanted. A large portion of Trumps base don't own stock, they scream in toothless rage against the "elites" and are just too stupid to realize that not only is the tariff war tanking the stock market but it's just about to make everything they buy more expensive. They HATE inflation, but they love tariffs that make all their products cost more
because the tariffs are pissing off the elites that have all the money that Trump sycophants only dream about, and if they can't have it, no one should!
It is unfortunately obvious that there are way too many voters who do not have clue one about economic matters. And then there are plenty who do have an idea but cultishly follow Trump anyway under some misguided notion that he knows what he is doing.
Once you convince yourself that everything is Biden’s fault, the medicine goes down easier.
If any of them have a pension plan they should worry about the stock market
learning that everything wrong in trump's first term was obama's fault and everything that goes wrong this term is biden's fault, is the basics for maga 101 ...
that should make extending the retirement age a lot more attractive ...
Navarro is nutters, and is running our economy into the ground...
MAGA be like...
As a useful idiot .
Not so useful at the moment. Elon is losing money
blondie bondi wants to start deporting people that say mean things about musk now ...
Elon should have thought of that before he started blindly slashing at the federal workforce. Any one with an ounce of perception could have ,should have seen that was not the way to go about realigning the bureaucracy.
The ultra-rich assume that not-rich are brainless. They consider us to be a different species. Innately inferior.
They assume that the not-rich are stupid AND lazy.
too stupid to be born into affluent families ...
My oh my, Navarro and Musk in a tiff over tariffs, so today Trump raised the tariffs on China to 104% and raised other as well….A box of rocks is an understatement when it’s comes to Trump stupidity.
how about a sack of turds?
Musk is on his way out, if only because he doesn't want to be "confirmed by the Senate". Navarro is better at ass-kissing, so he'll stay.
Your government at work.
I just read something on face book that Musk and his toddler shield weren't on the plane to Florida last weekend....
maybe he was busy being entertained at trump tower ...
Somehow that has more sadistic overtones now
she's a realist, and as a former eastern european "model", she doesn't need a crystal ball. she's got her own money now. her monthly stipend is in college and her contractual obligations and appearances are coming to their conclusion. she can always go public with a scandal, milk the tabloid media after she gets a book deal, and then hit the circuit and pocket even more cash.
He'll stay but no one will acknowledge his presence or talk to him.
he's a lot more popular when he's holding his checkbook ...
This is bound to piss progressives off. Trump's starting to come off as freakin' genius.
BREAKING: Trump Issues a Tariff Pause, Smacks China Again
yeah, republicans haven't won a war yet in asia, in the last 80 years, and never against the chinese ...
Neither did the democrats.
Explain how you can possibly think that this makes Trump look good, much less look like a genius.
... any which way the trump wind blows.
This is bound to piss off anyone with a 401 or IRA with normal blood pressure
Stop gaslighting yourself. He's isn't even a stable genius. he blinked first and he will have to blink again to pacify China.
How much did you lose in the market in the last week?
How much was the rebound today. 8% if you were a stable genius?
This is a train wreck...
Only to the truly foolish.
... 77+ million at last count.
Navarro is a moron.
trump hung his dumb ass out to dry and navarro came crawling back for more ... ... sucker!
I saw something this AM that Navarro has been removed from the trade negotiating team.
it's an administration of one decision maker separated by a revolving door from a room full of ass-licking patsies ...