‘Boys will be boys’: White House plays down Musk-Navarro spat over Trump tariffs

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to play down the significance of an online spat between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Donald Trump's long-time adviser Peter Navarro on Tuesday, April 8.

In a CNBC interview, Mr Navarro had described Mr Musk as "not a car manufacturer" but a "car assembler" who obtains cheap vehicle parts from Tesla abroad.

In response, the Tesla chief executive turned White House adviser wrote on X: “Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false.”

Speaking from the White House press briefing room, Ms Leavitt dismissed the online war of words with a simple rejoinder. “Boys will be boys,” she said.