Karoline Leavitt's Attempt To Spin Elon Musk Sparring With Trump's Staff Totally Backfires

There may be trouble in paradise when it comes to the bromance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, as Musk has started publicly insulting one of Trump's team. Musk and Trump have been close, with Trump going all in on Musk. But Trump publicly declared that the U.S. is going to impose tariffs on pretty much the entire world. One of the lead strategists for this plan is Peter Navarro, and Musk has had some not so nice things to say about him.

After Navarro referred to Tesla and Musk as a "car assembler" during a CNBC interview, Musk fired back on his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), calling Navarro, among other things, "dumber than a sack of bricks." The White House responded to the drama between the two Trump allies during the April 8 press briefing. While wearing another ill fitting blazer, Leavitt described the ongoing and very public conflict between the two as, "boys will be boys and we will let their public sparring continue," via CNBC Television.

Pretending that there was no issue with such public displays of disunity left people less than impressed. "Boys will be boys" isn't really a ringing endorsement to the professionalism or business acumen of Navarro, Musk, or Trump. One person on X said, "These people are shaping global trade, and the only response to public dysfunction is to laugh it off." Another called it, "Policy by playground rules," per X.

Karoline Leavitt went on to try and spin the lack of a united front from Donald Trump's team as a positive, saying of the back and forth between Peter Navarro and Elon Musk, "you guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history." That claim was also met with derision by critics on social media.

Not only is Musk publicly complaining about one of Trump's advisors, he has recently advocated for zero tariffs between the U.S. and Europe, which seems to be the complete opposite of Trump's current plans. Add all of that to the reports that Trump told some on his cabinet that Musk wouldn't be staying in the government for much longer, and we might be looking at the beginning of the end of the Musk and Trump relationship in real time.

Musk, who brought the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) to the government, is technically a temporary employee with a 130 day limitation. With all this continued public drama, he might be leaving sooner than that. Or Trump might side with Musk against Peter Navarro. It doesn't seem like both can continue in their roles with such opposing perspectives, so it may just be a matter of time before one or both of them becomes another of the once close allies who turned on Trump.