94Ha Viewpoint
On April 7, local time, the Washington Post quoted two sources as saying that over the weekend, Musk, the head of the US government’s efficiency department and the world’s richest man, directly called on US President Trump to revoke the new tariff policy. According to reports, Musk’s attempt was unsuccessful.
Trump said on the 7th that he would not suspend the so-called “reciprocal tariff” policy. After meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House that day, Trump told the media that he had no intention of suspending the tariff policy at the moment, and leaders of many economies were seeking to negotiate with him. He believes that there is no contradiction between forcibly implementing tariff policies and negotiating.
At the same time, on April 7, Musk shared a video of the late economist Milton Friedman on his social media account, in which Friedman explained the benefits of international trade cooperation by analyzing the source of materials for making a simple wooden pencil.
Musk had previously publicly criticized Navarro, Trump’s chief trade adviser and tariff supporter. On April 5, he said on the social platform “X” that it was a bad thing for Navarro to have a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, which would lead people to lack wisdom due to arrogance. At a party event held online in Florence, Italy on April 5, Musk called for Europe and the United States to move toward zero tariffs, effectively establishing a free trade zone across the Atlantic while also promoting the flow of people.
In the U.S. stock market crash on April 3 and 4, the market value of the seven major U.S. technology stocks evaporated by $1.6 trillion, and the wealth of technology tycoons also shrank significantly. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires List on the 6th, Musk’s net worth has shrunk by more than $30 billion in the past two days, and the net worth of Amazon founder Bezos and “Meta” company founder Zuckerberg, who ranked second and third on the world’s richest list, also evaporated by $23.5 billion and $27.3 billion respectively. The net worth of the world’s top three richest people has evaporated by more than $80 billion in the past two days.
