Elon Musk pushes back on Trump tariffs, with help of a pencil and economist Milton Friedman
Tech magnate Elon Musk protested Monday against President Trump’s barrage of tariffs on foreign imports by reposting the late libertarian economist Milton Friedman’s famous “pencil speech.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO did not add any comment to the early morning post, which featured a video of Friedman — who died in 2006 at the age of 94 — methodically explaining how the global supply chain works to produce writing implements quickly and cheaply.
“There’s not a single person in the world who could make this pencil,” Friedman began in the video. “Remarkable statement? Not at all. The wood from which it’s made, for all I know, comes from a tree that was cut down in the state of Washington. To cut down that tree, it took a saw. To make the saw, it took steel, to make the steel, it took iron ore.”
Friedman went on to suggest that the pencil’s graphite center came from mines in South America, while its rubber eraser came from “Malaya, where the rubber tree isn’t even native. It was imported from South America by some businessmen, with the help of the British government.”
“This brass ferrule, I haven’t the slightest idea where it came from,” Friedman added. “Or the yellow paint, or the paint that made the black lines or the glue that holds it together.
“Literally, thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil … What brought them together and induced them to cooperate to make this pencil? There was no commissar sending out orders from some central office. It was the magic of the price system … That is why the operation of the free market is so essential.”
Monday’s post came after Musk lashed out against some of the Trump administration’s loudest advocates of tariffs, namely senior counselor to the president for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro.
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Musk wrote about Navarro early Saturday. “Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
At one point, Musk also jabbed that Navarro “ain’t built sh—.”
Navarro has since downplayed the broadsides from Musk, while accusing him of trying to protect his own financial interests.
“I’ll probably see him today in the Oval — it’s no big deal,” Navarro told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday morning. “He is not a car manufacturer, he’s a car assembler in many cases.”
Navarro also praised Musk’s work on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Elon, when he’s in his DOGE lane is great, but we understand what’s going on here. Elon sells cars. He’s simply protecting his own interests,” Navarro told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Over the last three weeks, Musk’s net worth has shed an estimated $46 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
On Sunday, Musk also poked fun at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s defense of the tariffs on the penguin-inhabited Heard and McDonald Islands. Lutnick explained the duties were necessary to prevent countries from exploiting shipping loopholes.
“This is funny,” Musk remarked.
Last week, Musk suggested that the ideal outcome of the tariffs would be for the US and Europe to collectively lower the trade barrier imposed against one another.
Trump had announced a 20% tariff on imports from the European Union as part of his “Liberation Day” initiative.
“At the end of the day, I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk told Italy’s right-leaning, co-ruling League party in a video address.
“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 told League leader Matteo Salvini, adding that this “has certainly been my advice to the president.”
While the South Africa-born billionaire has not criticized Trump directly over the tariffs, he’s been critical of duties in the past.
“I think you need to be careful with tariffs,” Musk told comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan late last year. “I deal a lot with supply chain issues — like, the global automotive supply chain for Tesla is incredibly complex. So when there are sudden changes in tariffs … it messes everything up.”
“You want to have tariffs be predictable,” he added. “I think companies are more than happy to increase manufacturing in America, it’s just that you can’t do it instantly.”
