Shell-shocked voters of US allies choose stability over disruption

Elon Musk, who described himself as Donald Trump’s “First Buddy”, had a very public clash with “First Brain” Peter Navarro.

The founder of Tesla, whose market cap has crashed along with Musk’s personal reputation, last month took to social media to call Navarro “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks”.

Given Musk’s own highly destructive sackings, downsizing and cancelling of key departments within the US federal government under his Doge, or Department of Government Efficiency, drive for productivity and cost-cuttings, it’s not clear the same cannot be said about him.

Once widely admired as the world’s richest man and a tech visionary, he is now disliked or despised by more than half of Americans, according to numerous polls.

But he is probably not far off the mark about Navarro. If Musk represents the slash-and-burn version of Trump’s domestic policy, Navarro stands for that version of Trump’s foreign trade policy.

Senior US presidential adviser Peter Navarro (left) and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Photo: AFP

Certainly “brain” is not the word that immediately comes to mind when describing arguably the most influential economic adviser within the Trump White House.

South China Morning Post