Peter Navarro, Trump's Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, joined CNBC to gaslight Trump's temper tantrum against Mexico, which resulted imposing a 5% tariff on their goods.
Navarro's appearance on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" did little to alleviate fears in the stock market, as CNBC's ticker showed a drop while Navarro spoke. (Fail.)
Telling the markets, companies and the American people that are directly affected by these newly imposed tariffs to "chill out" and "look at this calmly" is not helpful, Peter.
In fact, it's counterproductive to the max. Even the right-wing Washington Examiner was furious over Trump's off-the-wall move. The title of this article tells you what you need to know:
"Trump's latest Mexico tariff gambit is reckless and mindbogglingly stupid"
Navarro spent a lot of time calling Mexico "a criminal organization" for allowing immigrants to come over the border.
Is Navarro has no understanding or is just outright lying when it comes to who pays the costs when tariffs are imposed? The fact that we have to ask that question is striking.
The CNBC host said, "But Peter it also hurts the American consumer. Why would you punish Americans? We imported $350 billion of products from Mexico last year. Everything from cars to fruits and vegetables to automobiles to appliances. Why raise American consumers prices on all that stuff coming from Mexico.
Navarro's claim is that the tariffs will force China and Mexico to lower their prices so that American consumers will see no difference but that is not backed up by the facts nor by almost every economist that is being honest.
"This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Trump tariffs, " he said and then launched into his smokescreen.
No it's not, Peter.
And tariffs are supposed to be used in trade negotiations, and not as a way to punish a neighboring country because Trump can't get his own policies organized enough to submit a proposal to Congress.
Donald Trump is an incompetent so-called president on so many levels.
We know Trump pulls moves like this to change the narrative whenever the media scrutiny is not to his liking: i.e. Robert Mueller's statement. But these moves severely punish the American people and are done for egotistical reasons.
