Musk Claims Victory in Bitter Tariff Feud by Posting Weird Meme
The billionaire CEO also posted a series of retweets pumping up Trump as dealmaker.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a weird internet meme on Wednesday to celebrate the end of President Donald Trump‘s tariffs—at least for now.
Trump said he would put a 90-day pause on his “reciprocal tariffs” on individual nations—up to 50% for some—amid tumbling global stock market, but would keep a 10% baseline tariff on nearly all U.S. imports.
The announcement sent Tesla’s stock rocketing back by 18% to nearly $262 per share, reported Axios. The company’s CEO appeared to acknowledge the rebound with a meme of Pepe the Frog, which has come to represent white nationalism and the alt-right in the #DarkMAGA corners of the internet that Musk openly frequents.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2025
Musk captioned the post with a winking emoji, but Tesla may not be completely out of the woods yet on tariff blowback. The company’s stock is still down about 31% from year-to-date, and Trump plans to still implement a 125% tariff on China amid his growing tariff tit-for-tat with the Asian nation.
Given Musk’s close ties with Chinese manufacturers, as reported The Washington Post, the stock rebound could only be a temporary reprieve as a trade war heats up.
Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 9, 2025
“China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
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Musk followed up his Pepe the Frog post with retweets of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who hailed Trump as a master dealmaker for the pause—which Trump suck-up Howard Lutnick alleged he helped engineer.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2025
In the aftermath of Trump’s initial April 2 announcement, Musk called Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navorro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” in an escalating online spat. He also reportedly pushed Trump several times to back off on tariffs, reported The Guardian.
However, Navorro appeared to get the last laugh as he positioned himself as the person who ultimately helped Trump arrive at a pause.
“This is one of the greatest days in American economic history we have had,” Navorro told Fox Business. “I think we’re going to call it the art of the reciprocal trade deal.”
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