Maggie Haberman Mocks Elon Musk’s Opposition to Trump Tariffs: ‘I Don’t Know What He Thought Was Going to Happen’
New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman criticized billionaire Elon Musk for backing President Donald Trump despite his opposition to tariffs Tuesday, remarking, “I don’t know what he thought was going to happen.”
Reacting on CNN’s The Source to Musk’s opposition to Trump’s recent tariffs – which have affected Musk’s company Tesla – Haberman said:
I don’t know that Trump is eager to have Elon Musk continuing on the way he has. There has been constant controversy, there have been complains from cabinet secretaries, but I know Trump does like, and a lot of his aides like, a lot of the DOGE team that is in place, and Trump even said at a cabinet meeting, you know, “They’re going to stay in place.” I think that Trump is not necessarily gonna want to have a direct confrontation with Elon Musk, saying, “I think I’ve had enough, you need to go,” so I suspect Elon Musk can drag this out for a while.
She continued, “One of the areas where they are in conflict is tariffs. If Elon Musk did not realize that Donald Trump supported tariffs, which is one of the few core beliefs he has had for forty years, I don’t know what he thought was going to happen. But if somebody says over many, many months they’re going to do this, you should assume they are.”
Musk expressed opposition to Trump’s tariffs during a recent call, saying, “I’ve been on the record many times saying that I believe lower tariffs are generally a good idea for prosperity, but this decision is finally up to the elected representative of the people, being the president of the United States.”
He concluded, “You know, I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs, but that’s all I can do.”
Earlier this month, Musk exchanged insults with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, calling him “a moron” and “Peter Retarrdo” after Navarro criticized Musk for importing car parts from overseas.
Watch above via CNN.
