White House slaps 104% tariffs on China as Elon Musk calls Trump trade advisor a ‘moron’
STOCK MARKETS REGAINED some ground, even as trade tensions between the United States and China were strained by turmoil over President Donald Trump’s tariffs offensive.
Trump rocked the world economy last week when he held up a chart in the White House garden showing the tariffs being levied on each country.
The move triggered a dramatic global market sell-off and fears of a widespread recession as he repeatedly doubled down on his aggressive trade policy.
Steep tariffs come into effect against goods from a raft of nations tomorrow, with Chinese products facing a stunning 104% levy after Beijing announced retaliatory measures, provoking a furious US reaction.
China blasted what it called US blackmail and vowed to “fight it to the end,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said.
Trump insisted that the ball was in China’s court because Beijing “wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started.”
“We are waiting for their call. It will happen!” he wrote on social media today.
China ‘confident’
In the war of words, China also condemned remarks by Vice President JD Vance in which he said the United States had for too long borrowed money from “Chinese peasants.”
The European Union sought to cool tensions, with the bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen warning against worsening the trade conflict in a call with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
She stressed stability for the world’s economy as well as “the need to avoid further escalation,” according to a readout from EU officials.
The Chinese premier told von der Leyen that the world’s number two economy could weather the economic storm.
“China can fully hedge against adverse external effects, and is fully confident of maintaining sustained and healthy economic development,” he said.
The EU – which Trump has criticized bitterly over its tariff regime – may unveil its response next week to the 20% levies it is facing under Trump.
In retaliation for levies introduced in mid-March on steel and aluminium, the EU plans tariffs of up to 25% on US goods ranging from soybeans to motorcycles and make-up, but excluding whiskey, wine and dairy.
This was something welcomed today in the Dáil by Labour leader Ivana Bacik.
Trump meanwhile has ruled out any pause in his aggressive stance, despite retaliatory action from China and signs of criticism from within his Republican Party.
“Nearly 50 countries have approached me personally to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity,” Trump’s top trade official told the Senate.
Several countries – including Argentina, Vietnam and Israel – had offered to reduce their tariffs, Trump’s trade chief Jamieson Greer said.
Trump believes the tariffs will revive America’s lost manufacturing base by forcing foreign companies to relocate to the United States, rather than making goods abroad.
But many business experts and economists question that, and say his tariffs are arbitrary.
‘Boys will be boys’
And in a sign of friction, key Trump ally Elon Musk described senior White House trade advisor Peter Navarro as “dumber than a sack of bricks” and “truly a moron”.
The extraordinary public spat came after Navarro described the Tesla boss and so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief as “not a car manufacturer” but “a car assembler” who relies on imported parts.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has previously signalled his opposition to the president’s new import tariffs that have roiled markets.
“Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” Musk posted on his X social network, under a clip of Navarro saying Tesla imported batteries, electronics and tires, and that Musk “wants the cheap foreign parts.”
Musk doubled down in a series of other messages, saying that “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
The White House played down the row.
“Boys will be boys and we will let their public sparring continue,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing when asked if the spat would harm the White House’s messaging on tariffs.
“Look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs.”
The South African-born tycoon recently backed the idea of a free-trade zone between North America and Europe – a wish at odds with Trump’s flagship tariffs.
A long-time China hawk, Navarro has been one of the most hardline voices on tariffs, and targeted Musk himself in an interview with CNBC.
“When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House, and 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,” Navarro said.
“If you go to his Texas plant… the batteries come from Japan and from China, the electronics come from Taiwan.”
The spat is all the more unusual because of the mesh of loyalties involved.
Trump has strongly defended Musk after a series of vandalism attacks and protests against Tesla over DOGE’s cost-cutting drive – even turning the White House into a pop-up showroom for the electric vehicles in a show of support.
Navarro, however, has proven his loyalty to Trump by serving a four-month jail sentence for contempt after refusing to testify to Congress on the 6 January, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
