Elon Musk took a swipe at top trade adviser Peter Navarro in a post on his social media platform X on Saturday over his his Harvard University degree.
Navarro is one of President Donald Trump‘s senior counselors for trade and manufacturing.
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Musk wrote. “Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.” Navarro earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1979 and a Doctor of Philosophy in economics in 1986.
Musk was commenting on a video of Navarro talking about Trump’s sweeping tariffs on CNN.
In the video, Navarro says the tariffs are to solve the trade deficits the U.S. has with other countries because the deficits “takes our factories, our jobs, and transfers wealth abroad.”
Here is Peter Navarro explaining the tariffs and contrary to the paid fake expert class that is usually on corporate media, Peter Navarro has a PhD in economics from Harvard.
He’s also not going to lie to you about what is happening to a globalist agenda.
Notice how he uses… pic.twitter.com/Ot8lnPosOE
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) April 4, 2025
A commenter said Navarro is correct, to which Musk replied: “He ain’t built shit,” without explaining his comment further.
It’s unknown why Musk is being antagonistic toward Navarro, other than his Harvard affiliation. He responded to a different user posting a quote attributed to conservative economist and commentator Thomas Sowell as saying “in every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it.”
Musk responded, “Yup.”
Musk has attacked those from Harvard in the past, suggesting in a May 2023 interview that hiring people from Harvard’s faculty is unwise.
“We’re better off being run by people picked at random from the phonebook than the faculty of Harvard,” he said, quoting someone else.
While Musk’s direct role is unknown in the negotiations, several elite schools, including Harvard, have been corresponding with the Trump administration over their demands to reform their schools or lose their federal funding.
Musk’s criticism of Navarro doesn’t appear to be symbolic of resistance to the Trump administration as he also posted or reposted several pro-Trump or pro-Trump administration posts on his X account on Friday and Saturday.
TRACKING WHAT DOGE IS DOING ACROSS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Musk has lost about $31 billion in net worth since Trump announced the tariffs on Wednesday. Tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos also lost about $27 billion and $23 billion each.
The tech magnate’s swipe at Navarro comes after a report that indicated Trump told his inner circle that Musk will be stepping back from his role in the government in the coming weeks.
