The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that "boys will be boys" after Elon Musk took to X to call Peter Navarro, a long-time aide to Donald Trump, a "moron" who is "dumber than a sack of bricks."
The public spat between Musk and White House trade advisor Navarro has shed light on a rift between key Trump aides over the US president's decision to slap tariffs on nearly all of the country's trading partners.
Navarro is widely seen as the architect behind Trump's trade policies, which are designed to boost manufacturing in the US.