Featured Image Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Staff / Getty
While the relationship between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk has been a roller coaster over the years, the pair could be on another downward trajectory.
The POTUS has been accused of triggering a global trade war with his foreign import tariffs, and with it, companies like Musk's Tesla are sure to be affected.
Even though Elon Musk is still the richest man in the world, his net worth has taken a hammering since Donald Trump stepped back into the White House on January 20.
It originally looked like a lucrative partnership, with the world's richest only getting richer as Trump vowed to usher in a new 'Gilded Age' for America.
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The bubble soon burst, with them losing billions and things only looking like they're going to get worse.
Musk's money had taken a battering before Trump even imposed his new customized tariffs on the likes of China and the European Union, but in the aftermath, they've continued to plummet.
All of this comes as part of Trump's plans to make America 'great' again, but now, his so-called First Buddy has spoken out.
Speaking in video organized by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Musk took aim at America's new 20% tariff against all EU imports and said he's looking toward a very different future: "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."
Championing "more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America," the tech billionaire then took a swipe at the EU's regulations against large companies like his own: "There are too many rules and regulations that make it very difficult to create a company and do too much to protect large companies at the expense of small to medium-sized companies." Saying that "radical deregulation is necessary," he accused Brussels of 'amplifying' the problem.
Elsewhere, Musk has been vocally against Trump tariff supporters, including US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and tariff architect Peter Navarro. Notably, Lutnick was mocked by Musk after defending a decision to slap tariffs on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands.
Lutnick said, "If you leave anything off the list, countries that try to arbitrage America try to go through those countries to get to us," which earned an X response from Musk simply saying, "This is funny," with a laughing emoji.
As for Navarro, he defended his position as Trump's trade czar and the tariffs by saying he went to Harvard. This clearly irked Musk, who reshared the footage and added: "A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem."
When someone else said Navarro was right, Musk replied, "He aint built sh*t."
Trump hasn't directly addressed what Musk has been saying, but discussing the Europe situation while on Air Force One, the POTUS told the press: "Europe made a fortune with us. Europe has also had a tremendous surplus with the United States. Europe is a little smaller but they treated us very badly, China has but Europe has also. Europe has been very bad to us."
There's dissent in the ranks.
