Elon Musk undoubtedly tweets a lot, recently offering about 270 posts, reposts, or comments to his X platform during the 24 hours of Presidents' Day. It was an average day for him.
But one subject has been glaringly absent in spite of Musk's 10+ post-per-hour velocity in the early weeks of Trump 2.0: the president's tariff plans.
In fact, a variety of searches of Musk's posting history using the X search engine for terms like "tariff" or "import duty" revealed minimal to no results. And when the topic does pop up, it's invariably in a post that is years old and sounds very different from how Donald Trump talks about the issue today.
At one point in 2018, Musk even directed a message at Trump during his first term by saying, "I am against import duties in general," as he also agreed with Trump's general objection to foreign duties on cars.
More recently, the tariff mentions from Musk appear to have dropped to zero. A Yahoo Finance review of many of Musk's tweets in recent weeks couldn't find a single direct mention by Musk, one way or the other, on tariffs.
Plenty of recent posts have praised Trump's agenda in broad terms but without noting tariffs specifically.
A search of Elon Musk's X account for the term "tariff" only returns a single result.
But that doesn't mean tariffs have necessarily been far from Musk's mind — or that Trump's trade agenda couldn't end up helping Musk's business interests depending on how it shakes out.
It's a dynamic that underlines how Musk, in addition to his role as "first buddy" and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also remains the CEO of multiple companies that could stand to gain or lose profits.
The tension was perhaps on no starker display than when Musk — who is also the Tesla (TSLA) CEO — met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to Washington last week as EV tariffs from that country sit as a key agenda item.
Trump recently announced a plan for reciprocal tariffs as his administration launches negotiations on a one-by-one basis with nations that could be impacted. Talks with India are already underway to determine whether Trump can force Modi's government to lower duties on things like EVs (which could clearly help a company like Tesla) or whether reciprocal tariffs will mean hikes in duties from both sides.
Musk's rare discussions of tariffs online over the years have often touched on reciprocity primarily as a means to drive down duties. At one point in 2020, he noted of the US/UK trading relationship that the ideal is "no tariffs at all either way."
Trump has clearly offered a very different public message. He often touts the duties as good for their own sake and as a way to raise revenue.
Just on Tuesday afternoon, the president told reporters he is looking at auto tariffs "in the neighborhood of 25%" and that he plans to announce them around April 2. He added that new duties on semiconductors and pharmaceutical products are also in the offing.
Trump has also implemented new 10% tariffs on China with many others threatened to go into effect in the coming weeks and months.
Elon Musk looks at his phone during the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington on Jan. 20. (KEVIN LAMARQUE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) ·KEVIN LAMARQUE via Getty Images
A balancing act for Musk
Musk's public stance is similar to certain other Republicans who tend to lean in a free trade direction but, for now, are content to keep their objections to Trump's trade war plans at a low volume or muted completely.
And the tariff topic clearly hasn't dampened Musk's enthusiasm for Trump and his agenda, as was in evidence when the two men sat for a warm joint interview on Fox News (where the topic of tariffs never came up) and in a memorable recent post from Musk, reading, "I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man."
But his relative public silence on tariffs — and possible behind the scenes maneuvering in the case of India — has become one of many criticisms lobbed at Musk from his political opponents.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, recently blasted Musk's meeting with Modi by charging that Musk was sitting in a formal government setting "for concessions that would make him rich" — calling it "shameless corruption at a scale never seen before in our history."
A summary of the meeting from Modi said the conversation touched on a variety of topics including "furthering ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.’"
Elon Musk meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington on Feb. 13. (Press Information Bureau / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images) ·Anadolu via Getty Images
But whether Musk is pushing in different directions in his role as a CEO versus that of a government employee is a topic that apparently isn't overly concerning to Trump.
The president was recently asked by reporters whether Musk approached his meeting with Modi as a CEO or as a White House adviser. Trump said he didn't know.
"I assume he wants to do business in India, but India's a very hard place to do business in because of the tariffs," Trump added.
"You could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want," Trump added as he weighed in on the topic again this week.
But one area of Musk's previously expressed views on tariffs may have resonated with Trump.
Musk has posted multiple times in recent years about the impact that local value-added taxes (VATs) have on the varying prices of Tesla cars.
"Prices in the US (of all goods) don't include VAT, but it's usually included in other countries," Musk noted in 2021.
Trump recently announced his plan for reciprocal tariffs with a memo that offered a specific discussion of how non-tariff barriers like a VAT would be part of the reciprocity conversation.
"For purposes of this United States Policy, we will consider Countries that use the VAT System, which is far more punitive than a Tariff, to be similar to that of a Tariff," Trump noted on Truth Social.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
Every Friday, Yahoo Finance'sRick Newman and Ben Werschkul bring you a unique look at how U.S. policy and government affects your bottom line on Capitol Gains. Watch or listen to Capitol Gains on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
