Today in Politics, Bulletin 108. 4/8/25

… Elon Musk said Trump’s Trade Advisor Peter Navarro is “dumb as a sack of bricks” and referred to him as “Peter Retardo” on social media today.

… What sparked Musk’s ire was a Navarro clip from CNBC: “We all understand in the WH that Elon's a car manufacturer. But he's not really a car manufacturer - he's a car assembler. In many cases, if you go to his TX plant, a good part of the engines that he gets (which in the EV case are the batteries) come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan. The difference in our thinking and Elon's on this is that we want the tires made in Akron, we want the transmissions made in Indianapolis, we want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw, and we want the cars manufactured here.”

… Musk responded: ”Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks. By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content. Navarro should ask the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara.”

… WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about their feud today: “These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and tariffs. Boys will be boys.”

… Leavitt also announced that since China refused to back down to Trump's threat on Truth Social yesterday, they will be hit with a new 50% starting tomorrow to bring the total tariff on goods from China to an astonishing 104%: “When America is punched, Trump punches back harder. That’s why there will be 104% tariffs going into effect tonight on China at midnight.”

… China’s Ministry of Commerce: “The US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake. If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”

… The stock market, which had rallied significantly in the morning on Wall Street hope that global tariffs could be negotiated away, immediately went back in the tank with the new China tariff announcement.

… Former Treasury Sec Lawrence Summers: “To borrow a word from the doctors, this is our first iatrogenic financial crisis. An iatrogenic illness is when you go into the hospital, and you catch an infection there. It's when the people whose job it is to make things better are the active agents of making things worse. There is nothing in the outside world that is causing this challenge. It is induced by the words and deeds of Trump and his admin.”

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) did a media tour blasting Trump's tariffs: "I can't support a fallacy that is going to make us lose our wealth. I have a retirement account too and I think tariffs is going to decimate it. The whole debate is so fundamentally backwards and upside down. It's based on a fallacy, and the fallacy is this: that somehow in a trade, someone must lose. That somehow when you trade with someone, someone is taking advantage of you. I have a trade deficit with my grocery store."

… Paul: "We have to start from talking about the truth. One of the things they say with Canada is, 'Oh, there's a 270% tariffs on dairy products going from the US into Canada.' Well you know what the real tariffs is? Zero. That's a big difference between what the truth is."

… Michelle Lam, China economist at Societe Generale SA, to Bloomberg: “The rhetoric from China is strong. Without Trump backing down investors may need to prepare for trade decoupling between both countries.”

… Financial Times: “Unlike the previous two rounds of retaliation, which targeted specific categories of US imports, this time Beijing announced a blanket tariff increase to come into effect from April 10, a day after America’s ‘reciprocal’ levies come into effect.”

… Tu Xinquan, dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the Univ of Intl Business and Economics in Beijing: “The Chinese reaction to the first two tariff hikes was moderate and patient, but we found out patience wasn’t helpful.”

… Bloomberg reported that China also intervened at the last minute to halt the sale of US TikTok operations by Chinese social media group ByteDance to a consortium of American investors, and will block any sale while the new tariffs remain in effect.

… Leavitt: "I do just want to point out one thing. Everybody in Washington, whether they want to admit it or not, knows that this president is right when it comes to tariffs and when it comes to trade."

… Tesla took another beating, down another 11.43 a share. Tesla has now lost 17.87% of its value in the past month.

… But wait, there’s more! Canada PM Mark Carney: “At 12:01 EDT tonight, Canada’s counter-tariffs will come into force. There will be 25% tariffs on all non-CUSMA-compliant vehicles from the U.S., and 25% tariffs on the contents of CUSMA-compliant vehicles that are not from Canada or Mexico. Trump caused this trade crisis - and Canada is responding with purpose and with force.”

…. Handelsblatt reported: “Brussels is watching amazed, as Trump destroys the US economy. One EU official: "Nobody in the Commission thought that the US government would be this stupid and self-destructive - that they would blow up their own country by letting ChatGPT make their trade policy."

… Trump says he will only lift the EU tariffs on one condition, which they immediately rejected: "We have a deficit with the EU of $350 billion and it's gonna disappear fast. One of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly is they're gonna have to buy our energy from us. They can buy it, we can knock off $350 billion in one week. They have to buy and commit to buy a like amount of energy."

… German Economy Minister Robert Habeck: “We're under no time pressure. The Americans are under pressure and are now in a position of weakness. The damage can get even worse - that’s why we must act calmly, carefully, but decisively.”

… Habeck mocked Musk’s mutual zero tariff proposal: “It's sign of weakness and fear. If he has something to say, he should go to his President. Before we talk about zero tariffs, stop the nonsense and mess you just made in the last week.”

… Leavitt was asked to explain the WH's evolution from “this is not a negotiation on tariffs” to “countries should push us and start negotiations”. LEAVITT: “Both things can be true at the same time.”

… The WH official social media account deleted a post they made previously of a Navarro OpEd in the Financial Times which said that the tariffs were non-negotiable once they are imposed.

No Bulletin tomorrow since I have my live podcast Uncovered tomorrow at 4 ET. I did Susan Estrich’s podcast today, who was Mike Dukakis’s campaign manager in 1988. We had a great conversation and will post a link here to it when she puts it out. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can read it here.

… Washington Examiner reported that a supervisor in Marco Rubio’s Diplomatic Security Service was arrested at a hotel in Brussels after arguing with staff at where Rubio was staying and then physically fighting with police officers who responded to