Ben Shapiro Backs ‘100% Right’ Elon Musk Over Criticism of Trump Tariffs
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro backed Elon Musk over his criticism of the Trump administration’s sweeping imposition of tariffs on Monday, calling him “100% right.”
Musk, who had emerged as one of President Donald Trump’s most loyal — and powerful — advisers over the last year, offered some scathing criticism of Trump trade counselor Peter Navarro and the administration’s trade policy over the weekend.
Responding to a clip of Navarro defending said policy on CNN, Musk mused “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
In another post, Musk wrote “He ain’t built shit.”
Then in a conference call with a right-wing Italian political party, Musk said he had advised Trump to eliminate trade barriers with Europe.
“Ideally, both Europe and the United States should move to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” argued Musk. “If people wish to work in Europe or wish to work in North America, they should be allowed to do so in my view.”
Meanwhile, Navarro fired back at Musk on Fox News, submitting that Musk’s opinion was based on his personal, rather than national interests.
Shapiro took Musk’s side on his show Monday.
“The most obvious manifestation of debate inside the administration is coming courtesy of Elon Musk. Elon happens to be 100% right about this. So Elon Musk is ripping into trade adviser Peter Navarro. Navarro is a big tariff advocate. He’s been a big tariff advocate for years. And the Tesla CEO ripped Peter Navarro as someone who ‘ain’t built bleep’. And then when asked about his Harvard PhD in economics, he said, that’s a bad thing, not a good thing. And then he posted a quote from economist Thomas Sowell that said “in every disaster throughout American history there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it.'” began Shapiro, setting the stage.
He continued:
Meanwhile Musk himself suggested that he wants a zero tariff situation, which again, this is the good explanation for why you would do the tariff game. I urge the president to do precisely what Musk is saying here. Go to zero with all these countries. Go to zero That’s a win, take the win, move on. That would be good for the economy, good for you, you’d have flexed your muscle, you’d flexed American muscle. That’d be good.
Here’s Elon Musk:
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“I’m hopeful, for example, with the tariffs, that at the end of the day, I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move, ideally in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America.”
[CLIP ENDS]
Navarro, for his part, started fighting back. Here was Peter Navarro on Fox News trying to push back against Musk:
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“I mean, look, Elon,, look, Elon, when he’s in his DOGE lane is great, but we understand what’s going on here. Do we just have to understand. Elon sells cars, and he’s in Texas, assembling cars that have big parts of that car from Mexico, China, the batteries come from Japan or China, the electronics come from Taiwan, and he’s simply protecting his own interests as any business person would do.”
[CLIP ENDS]
Okay, so open battle between Elon and Navarro. Navarro is wrong, Elon is right. It’s that simple. The reality is that Navarro’s trade prescriptions, which is this giant trade war where he believes the tariffs are in and of themselves good, not to get to zero, they in and of themselves are good. That is a bad economic policy.
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