Tesla owner Elon Musk blasted one of President Donald Trump’s key advisers after he made comments about how the company sources the parts it uses to manufacture its vehicles.
Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, during an appearance on CNBC suggested that Tesla uses parts from Japan and China when putting together its vehicles.
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, if you go to his Texas 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...
what we want — and the difference is 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.
“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, if you go to his Texas 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...
What we want — and the difference is 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.”
PETER NAVARRO ON ELON MUSK:
— Ron Pragides (@mrp) April 8, 2025
“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, if you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets… pic.twitter.com/mkp1wRGcvX
Musk reportedly tried to talk President Trump out of imposing global tariffs, according to The Washington Post.
Over the weekend, as Elon Musk launched into a barrage of social media posts criticizing one of the lead White House advisers for President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff plan, Musk was going over that same official’s head — and making personal appeals to Trump.
The attempted intervention, confirmed by two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks, has not brought success so far; Trump threatened Monday to add new 50 percent tariffs on imports from China to go along with the 34 percent taxes he announced last week.
Musk responded to a video of Navarro’s appearance and said the advisor “is truly a moron.”
Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2025
In a follow-up post, Musk further explained that “Tesla has the most American-made cars” and that Navarro “is. Dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Sendil Palani, Tesla’s vice president of finance, also chimed in, explaining that at the company’s Texas plant, the assembly of battery cells and drive units take place in Texas and Nevada.
In our Texas plant, the manufacturing of battery cells, the assembly of these cells into packs, and the manufacturing of Drive Units (analogous to "engines") are primarily performed at two domestic locations:
— Sendil Palani (@sendilpalani) April 8, 2025
1) on-site at Giga Texas (Austin, TX)
2) Giga Nevada (Sparks, NV)
Navarro was wrong. Tesla, as Palani stated, does most of its manufacturing in the United States, as it says on its website. The company is also planning to expand its domestic battery production in the U.S.
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