Peter Navarro Talks US's Economic Emergency
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Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. The White House vowing to appeal after a federal court ruled against President Donald Trump's Liberation Day tariffs. Joining us now to discuss the senior White House trade advisor, Peter Navarro. Dr. Navarro, welcome back to the program, sir. First of all, I think we've got to get into the ruling overnight. Have you spoken to the president? And ultimately, what's his reaction to what we heard?

I haven't spoken to the president yet, but I've spoken to people who have spoken to the president. Look, we're in a situation now, big picture here is IEPA. We were using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. There's no question that there's an economic emergency with respect to both uses that we had. One is we are in a world where...

China has killed over a million Americans with fentanyl poison

And we took this step to stop that. We will continue to press on that. At the same time, we invoked that rule to stop what has been 20 million illegal aliens streaming into our country, driving down wages, taking jobs away. That's an economic emergency. On top of that, the world continues to steal about a trillion dollars a year as measured by the trade deficit.

And that's an economic emergency because it's transferring our wealth abroad. So we think we have a strong case, yes.

We will immediately appeal and try to stay the ruling but at the same time the court interestingly enough Basically said we were right just use different rules and laws So nothing has really changed here in that sense We're still as we speak having countries call us and tell us they want a deal So these deals are going to happen

So that's kind of where we're at and it's troublesome here because if you look broadly at the pattern, we've got courts in this country

who are basically engaged in attacks on the American people. The president ran on stopping the fentanyl poisoning, stopping international trade unfair practices from stealing our factories and jobs. And courts keep getting in the way of that. The courts get in the way of trying to deal with the border issues. Now they're getting in the way of trying to deal with the fentanyl crisis.

And that's where we stand here. And I think part of what's going to be important about this ruling is

demonstrates yet again to the American people that the judiciary in this country has been weaponized in ways which are contrary to their interests. Well, Peter, you would have heard a lot of people come on this program and ultimately say you still have tons of options, and you've alluded to one of them. You will, of course, appeal, but could you describe what you might do in the interim, the way you might pursue your ultimate objective anyway with the tools you have still available to you?

I'm going to let Jameson Greer, the USTR, inform you on that, and you'll be hearing from him soon on that. But look, any trade lawyer knows there's just a number of different options we can take. If you look at the kind of things we've already done, it kind of gives you

a roadmap on that. There's all sorts of numbers out there. There's 122, there's 301, there's 232, there's 338. There's all sorts of things we can do well within the law. But look, we think that what we've done already

is perfectly appropriate. So that's why the appeal will take case. But you know, it's like, interestingly enough, I was scheduled to come on the program today to talk about the bond market and the big beautiful tax bill, but there is a bridge to that. And if I may, we have a situation where the bond market, we've seen like a 50 basis point increase in yields in the 10 year.

since April 2nd. And a lot of the hysteria around the big, beautiful tax bill centers on the Congressional Budget Office scoring that bill in a way which says there's going to be a $3.7 trillion addition to America's national debt over the next 10 years. And so, of course, you've got to finance that, and that drives interest rates up and heads explode. When, in fact...

If you do the math properly and you look at the history of the CBO forecast, you actually see about a $5 trillion swing to a $2 trillion surplus

from the bill. And I'd like to walk you through the math there. It's like the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, historically has been very bad at estimating impacts of tax bills. In the 2017 tax cut that President Trump did, they got that totally wrong. They underestimated the GDP growth by a full percentage point.

And what that does, if they make that same mistake here, which they have done, when you add that, that's about $2 trillion of additional revenue because you've got greater economic activity. And then... Peter, you also have the revenue from the tariffs, which...

I saw your opinion piece in the Hill. I just want to get back to the tariffs because you don't have that revenue. Well, that's another $2 trillion. If you don't have the legal authority to use it, though. But can I just ask? You mentioned Ambassador Greer. We're going to hear from him soon. Are we going to hear from USTR about the bridge, potentially what John was talking about, if you can't use IEPA, potentially you're going to come out, the administration say we're going to use 122 in the interim?

Well, the court did in some sense tell us to do that, which was interesting. But look, here's the thing. Fentanyl, I just... People need to wrap their heads around the fact that every day here in America, people die because of...

Communist China puts 50-gallon barrel, 50-gallon drums full of these chemicals that come over to the Mexican cartels and then are made not just into fentanyl. They use the fentanyl to spike heroin, to spike methamphetamines, to spike ecstasy. And they're even putting it in prescription drugs like Xanax and Valium.

And people are dying. It's been over a million people, a million Americans. And it's an economic emergency because a lot of those people are prime age working force here in America. So this kind of court ruling, the judge, I mean, look, the lead judge in this case. But if the court said, if the ruling,

- The ruling said, Peter, and we've been talking about this, page 34, 35, they say basically you're in your right if you use section 122. Why didn't you guys do that from the beginning? - Well, section 122 only gives you 150 days.

So there's your answer right there. So Section 122, if you use this now for 158, would it be a bridge to 301 or a bridge to 232? What are you thinking more long term? You can be the strategist on that, but those are the kinds of thoughts. And look, if anybody thinks this caught the administration by surprise, think again. Because you could see...

in the oral arguments where those judges were going and the lead judge in this. I mean, the problem with that court, it's such an obscure court, but

But it's consistently been globalist, pro-importer, giving us bad rulings. The lead judge there ruled against the 232s originally and had to get overturned by the appeals court. So that gives you an idea of the bias against the president's tariff policy right on that court.

I think the big picture here is we've got a very strong case with IEPA, but the court basically tells us if we lose that, we just do some other thing. So nothing's really changed. I want to say this to the world. You're cheating us. We're coming after you. Deal.

And let's make this right, because ultimately what's at stake here is the global international environment getting in a way where it's fair to America. And thereby, if it's fair to America and we restructure this thing in a way, we'll have just more stability in terms of financial flows and capital and everything like that.

Dr. Navarro. It's wildly out of balance now. We've got to run, but it's great to catch up with you, sir. And we look forward to seeing your next steps. I've just got to tell you one thing. Anytime, John. You're not allowed to hire Anne-Marie. She's with us, all right? The senior White House trade advisor, Peter Navarro. Peter, thank you, sir. Dr. Navarro there on the trade story. Thrivent can help you plan your finances for the people, causes, and community you love. What makes Thrivent different? Financial services and generosity programs are combined to help you build the financial roadmap for the future.

while also creating opportunities to give back along the way. Visit Thrivent.com to learn more. Thrivent, where money means more. This is an iHeart Podcast. ♪