The White House is attempting to paper over an ugly online spat between two of Donald Trump’s close confidants over the tariff policies that have roiled stock markets and disturbed investors over the last six days as Trump himself is doubling down on increasing the taxes Americans will pay on Chinese imports.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday dismissed an online war of words between Tesla and SpaceX chief executive turned White House adviser Elon Musk and Peter Navarro, the longtime Trump aide and China hawk who has pressed Trump to tax Americans as a way of punishing foreign countries for trade deficits that are the result of market forces and decades-long trends in globalization of supply chains.
