Ron Vara doesn’t exist but he’s been quoted in five of White House official Peter Navarro’s books. He says things like, “You’ve got to be nuts to eat Chinese food,” which seems unscientific. I mention this because Elon Musk just called Navarro a “moron” who doesn’t understand tariffs and should consult “the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara.”

Inventing sources in supposedly serious books on economics is a frowned upon practice, but Navarro is a basic scoundrel who just spent four months in federal prison for failing to cooperate with the congressional investigation of the attempted coup d’état on January 6, 2021. For this loyalty, Navarro was rewarded by Trump with the position of senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. He’s the architect of the senseless tariffs the fascist regime rolled out last week which caused the stock markets to plummet and cost Musk in excess of $60 billion.

Navarro is shrugging off Musk’s criticism, arguing that he is “simply protecting his interests like any business executive would do.” According to the New York Times, staffers in the White House seem more amused than alarmed by Musk’s abuse of Navarro. But it’s not really such a non-event.

If Navarro is a moron, Trump is closely following a moron’s economic advice and can’t really escape the same criticism. It might be more polite for Musk to aim his rhetoric at an underling, but the boss is the decision maker and he also doesn’t understand tariffs.

No one can convince him, for example, that foreign countries do not pay the cost of tariffs. It’s a fee that American importers pay and then pass on with a combination of higher prices and lower labor compensation, both of which hurt the American people. Trump doesn’t understand the difference between a budget deficit and a trade deficit, nor that they have nothing to do with each other. He and Navarro built their tariff formula on the idiotic idea that countries that import more to America than they export are stealing from us.

It’s not just Musk who is speaking out. Here’s Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana: “Tariffs are like whiskey: A little whiskey, under the right circumstances, can be refreshing — but too much whiskey, under the wrong circumstances, can make you drunk as a goat.”

The implication is that Navarro’s plan will make the country “drunk as a goat,” which is presumably a bad thing.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas says, correctly, that “tariffs are a tax on consumers, and I’m not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers.” He calls Musk an “angel” on Trump’s shoulder arguing against permanent tariffs and suggests that Navarro is a “devil” on the other shoulder.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky doesn’t even accept the so-called “national emergency” declaration the fascist regime used to authorize the implementation of tariffs.

Paul also spoke on the Senate floor criticizing Trump’s argument that the tariffs are necessary because of what he claimed was a “national emergency” regarding trade deficits. Paul said Congress needed to reassert its constitutional power to regulate tariffs and foreign trade.

“I am a Republican. I am a supporter of Donald Trump,” Paul said. “But this is a bipartisan problem. I don’t care if the president is a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t want to live under emergency rule. I don’t want to live where my representatives cannot speak for me and have a check and balance on power.”

“One person can make a mistake and guess what — tariffs are a terrible mistake,” Paul said.

Perhaps we’ll hear Ron Vara (or John Baron) call in to Fox Business News and CNBC to counter these skeptics of Navarro’s plans.

The truth is, Trump and Navarro are far out over their skis and are likely headed towards the trees. There are now efforts in the House, spearheaded by Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), and the Senate, led by Chuck Grassley (R-IA), to reassert that the Constitution gives the authority for imposing taxes and tariffs to Congress, not the executive branch. Important people are sick of watching money burn.

But money will continue to burn until the fascist regime is defeated. A rift between Trump and Musk over tariffs is a start.