Senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro continued to defend tariffs on behalf of his boss, President Donald Trump.
In recent weeks, the president unveiled 10% tariffs against Mexico, Canada, and China to start Apr. 2 along with a 25% tariff on foreign automobiles. Even though the tariffs have yet to begin, the stock market has already had bearish reactions, but Navarro tried to calm the markets.
“The message is that tariffs are tax cuts. Tariffs are jobs. Tariffs are national security. Tariffs are great for America. Tariffs will make America great again,” Navarro said on Fox News Sunday. “First of all, we’re gonna raise about $100 billion with the auto tariffs alone. … This is a genius thing that President Trump promised on the campaign trail. So, that’s gonna happen. In addition, the other tariffs are gonna raise about $600 billion a year. About 6 trillion over a 10-year period.”
Fox News host Shannon Bream pushed Navarro, citing Trump’s own words that the tariffs could add up to “a little disturbance” for the American consumer.
“Trust in Trump. We have the example from the first term. We know that we imposed historically high tariffs on China. We imposed aluminum and steel tariffs. We imposed on washing machines, on solar. All we got out of that, Shannon, all we got out of that was prosperity and price stability,” Navarro said. “And the reason why we’re not gonna see inflation is because foreigners are gonna eat most of it. They have to. We’re the biggest market in the world, Shannon. They have to be here. They have to be here. So, they’re gonna cut the prices to absorb that.”
On a later Fox News Sunday segment, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) scoffed at Navarro’s estimates of how much money the tariffs could bring to the U.S. The senator implied that strenuous tariffs could have the same effect as when some were applied in the 1920’s just before the Great Depression.
TRUMP SAYS 25% AUTO TARIFFS WILL ‘ABSOLUTELY’ BE PERMANENT
“That is a tax. That money doesn’t come falling out of the sky. That money comes because these products will go up. Americans will pay more,” Warner said.
Navarro’s second stint of service as an adviser to Trump follows him being convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress after refusing to turn over documents to the Jan. 6 committee and declining to testify to them. As a result, he served four months in prison in 2024.
