After a public spat with Elon Musk, who called him a "moron" for trying to get the world on a level playing field in trade through massive tariffs, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro downplayed the liberal media's diving a wedge between key advisers for President Donald Trump.
"Elon and I are great," Navarro told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "It's not an issue."
Host Kristen Welker shot back, "even though he called you a moron and dumber than a sack of bricks?"
"I've been called worse," Navarro responded with smiles and a laugh. "Everything's fine with Elon.
"And, look, Elon's doing a very good job with his team with waste, fraud, and abuse. That's a tremendous contribution to America, and no man doing that kind of thing should be subject to having his cars firebombed by crazies.
"That is beyond the pale.
"No one should come into the government and have to go to jail like I did."
Musk has sought to advocate for "zero-tariff" trade, but Navarro shares Trump's belief that reciprocal tariffs – if not punitive tariffs on bad actors like China – are being used to get the world to balance trade toward zero tariffs: Ostensibly true free and fair trade worldwide.
"Zero tariffs get the American people virtually nowhere," Navarro said.
"It doesn't work. The big problem we have are the non-tariff barriers, the currency manipulation, the dumping, the VAT [value-added] taxes and all of that stuff that we have no defense against other than tariffs right now."
Amid reports Navarro's spat with Musk has led to him being "sidelined," Navarro noted a simple alternative fact to the liberal media: "I'm here. I'm here on 'Meet the Press.'"
"Kristen, anytime, I'll come back, OK," he concluded.
After the public spat between Musk and Navarro, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted an oft-repeated Trump desire to bring advocates from all sides of an argument together to hash out American policy.
"These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and tariffs: Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue," Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. "You guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history."
Welker shared concerns on Trump's evolving tariffs policies, including enhanced tariffs, pauses, and "exclusions," but Navarro called it all expected worldwide reaction to Trump's bold moves.
"This is unfolding exactly like we thought it would in a dominant scenario," Navarro said, pointing to the countries willing to cut new deals with the Trump administration on trade.
"We've got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here, and it was par for the course. Actually, it was a birdie for President Trump to do exactly what he did, which was pause for 90 days, and we're going to get this done for the American people."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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