Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump's senior adviser for trade and manufacturing, said Wednesday that despite the first drop in U.S. gross domestic product in three years, "we really like where we're at now," pointing to a surge in new domestic investment.
The U.S. economy shrank three-tenths of a percent from January through March, slowed by a surge in imports as U.S. companies tried to bring in foreign goods before Trump's proposed tariffs took effect.
"I've got to say just one thing about today's news, that's the best negative print I have ever seen in my life," Navarro told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "The markets need to, like, look beneath the surface of that [figure]."
"We had a 22% increase in domestic investment. That is off the charts. When you strip out inventories and the negative effects of the surge in imports because of the tariffs, you had 3% growth," Navarro said. "So we really like where we're at now."
Major stock market indices were down in morning trading, according to CNBC, on the heels of the GDP report, which reflected economic data from the first two full months of Trump's second term. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 rallied to finish in the black. The S&P 500, though, is down about 5.1% and the Dow 4.1% this year. The NASDAQ, which dropped 14.98 points on Wednesday, is down about 9.5% this year.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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