Musk directly opposes Trump’s tariff policy - Washington Post
Elon Musk, an American billionaire and key adviser to Donald Trump, has spoken out against the White House's tariff policy. He was supported by other billionaires.
This is reported by the Washington Post, Censor.NET informs.
According to the publication, Musk has been criticising one of the White House's top advisers on social media about Trump's aggressive tariff plan. Musk corresponded with the same official and made personal appeals to Trump.
According to the publication, this has been confirmed by two people familiar with the matter. However, so far, Musk's attempts have been unsuccessful. On 7 April, Trump threatened to impose new 50 per cent tariffs on imports from China in addition to the 34 per cent taxes he had announced last week. However, he made it clear that he was open to negotiating some aspects of his policy.
Musk, meanwhile, posted a video to X in which the late conservative economist Milton Friedman touted the benefits of international trade cooperation — "the impersonal operation of prices," breaking down the sources of the materials that go into a simple wooden pencil.
Disagreements between Musk and Trump
Musk’s break with Trump over a signature US administration priority marks the highest-profile disagreement between the president and one of his key advisers, who poured nearly $290 million into backing him in elections. He has also been leading the U.S. DOGE Service’s cost-cutting efforts since January.
Musk has also disagreed with other members of Trump’s coalition on issues such as H1-B visas for skilled immigrants and on DOGE’s approach to government spending.
In an interview with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini over the weekend, Musk also said 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."
Musk also said that he would like more freedom for people to move between countries in Europe and the United States and work in either "if they wish."
"That has certainly been my advice to the president," he said.
The position of billionaires
Many of the business and technology leaders who supported Trump’s candidacy were stunned by the president’s decision to go forward with such steep tariffs, and equally disappointed that they weren’t able to exert more influence on the policy, the two people familiar with the matter said.
People in Musk’s orbit made direct appeals to friends in the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Musk, arguing for what they felt were more sensible free trade policies. One Musk friend, investor Joe Lonsdale, posted on X that he had argued to "friends in the administration" in recent days that tariffs would hurt American companies more than Chinese ones.
According to one source, a group of business leaders worked over the weekend to put together an informal group that would lobby members of the Trump administration for more moderate policies.
Many supported Trump last year even while knowing that the steep tariffs he had long promised could be destructive to both the tech industry and the economy as a whole, but they felt that Trump could be swayed by advisers such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to adopt a softer approach, sources say.
The business leaders also did not anticipate that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who had been one of Musk’s key conduits into Trump’s orbit, would be such a strong advocate of protectionist polices.
Trump imposes tariffs
As a reminder, Trump signed a decree imposing a minimum 10 percent tariff on almost all goods entering the United States. For some countries, the tariffs are higher. In particular, China - 34%, the European Union - 20%.
Later it became known that Trump had declared a state of emergency in the country's economy.
The list of Donald Trump's duties includes the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands.
