Donald Trump's brutal tariff war is already rattling the global economy — and the resolve of business leaders everywhere.
Look no further than the president's close ally and number one henchman Elon Musk, who the Washington Post reports has been personally begging Trump to reconsider behind closed doors.
Over the weekend, Musk broke rank and railed against the architect of Trump's catastrophic tariff policy, advisor on trade and manufacturing, Peter Navarro.
But Trump doubled down, threatening to add new 50 percent tariffs on imports from China, meaning that Musk's personal pleas have been to no avail — indicating a growing and intriguing rift between the two.
After spending months together on the campaign trail and then at the White House, could the honeymoon phase now be crumbling as Trump's economic ambitions clash with Musk's business realities?
Less than a month ago, Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom in a desperate attempt to prop up his ally's ailing carmaker.
The schism between the two has widened considerably since then, with Musk telling Italian right-wing populist political party Lega that he'd like to see a "zero-tariff situation" and a "free trade zone" between Europe and the US.
"If people wish to work in Europe or wish to work in North America, they should be allowed to do so, in my view," Musk said at a Saturday meeting, via a video link.
On Monday, Musk posted a widely-circulated video of economist Milton Friedman explaining that the manufacturing of pencils requires complex supply chains, which free trade enables.
Musk also mocked the Trump administration for imposing tariffs on islands exclusively populated by penguins.
It's an especially noteworthy change of tune as Musk is expected to leave his post as the unofficial lead of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in the coming months.
Instead of leveraging the US' position as a world power with the largest GDP, Trump has cratered international relations and undermined goodwill with the nation's longtime trading partners.
The exact reasoning for the president's not-at-all "reciprocal" tariff war remains murky at best, with economists largely shaking their heads in disbelief.
"This is simply a 'spectacle' of failed economic policies," Li Daokui, one of China's most influential economists, told Agence France-Presse. "It is hard to imagine that there is any other economic policy that can make people around the world, including people in the United States itself, suffer losses at the same time."
How the turmoil will affect Musk's many businesses remains to be seen. The mercurial CEO has previously claimed that the "tariff impact on Tesla is still significant" as a result of Trump targeting the auto industry.
It's the perfect storm for Tesla, which was already reeling from a tarnished brand and tanking sales well before Trump announced the latest round of tariffs.
"The backlash from Trump tariff policies in China and Musk’s association will be hard to understate," Wedbush Securities analyst and longtime Tesla bull Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients on Sunday. "Tesla has essentially become a political symbol globally... and that is a very bad thing for the future of this disruptive tech stalwart and the brand crisis tornado that has now turned into an F5 tornado."
"This is a full blown crisis Tesla is navigating now (along with these tariffs), and it is time for Musk to step up, read the room, and be a leader in this time of uncertainty," Ives added.
Musk's brother has also publicly criticized Trump for his catastrophic trade policy.
"Who would have thought that Trump was actually the most high tax American President in generations," Kimbal Musk wrote in a post on his brother's platform Monday. "Through his tariff strategy, Trump has implemented a structural, permanent tax on the American consumer."
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