Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Charles Payne Asks Peter Navarro If He Is Being Pushed Aside On Tariff Decisions

[Screenshot/Fox Business]

Fox Business host Charles Payne asked White House trade adviser Peter Navarro point-blank Wednesday if President Donald Trump is pushing him aside in exchange for different advice on tariffs.

The market significantly rebounded Wednesday after Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for nearly 75 countries that did not issue retaliatory tariffs. Payne questioned Navarro on whether he is “taking a backseat” to allow Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to take charge of Trump’s economic policy.

“I said, more Bessent. Because it felt like he was more of the architect and then of course the donnybrook that you had with Elon Musk. Is today in some way a repudiation of you? Are you taking a backseat and is Bessent now in the driver’s seat?” Payne asked.

“As you just said, it’s the whole team. We work together beautifully, I mean Scotty is one of my best friends. We’ve known each other for years now,” Navarro said, leading Payne to push back.

Payne said that Navarro seemed to “want to go further” with these tariffs just the day before, despite there currently being a 90-day pause.

“I’m not disputing that, but I’m saying that in respect to messaging because yesterday, or the day before, you talked about going after these deficits in a way that scared the market. Everyone says, okay, let’s get a fair level playing field. But it seemed like you wanted to go further,” Payne pushed back.

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“No, not at all,” Navarro said. “No, look, Vantage said this once during the first term. I’m the default strategy in a way, if they don’t want to cooperate, then they get tariffs. If they cooperate, we talk to them. I mean, it’s a beautiful thing. And I’m telling you, Charles, if you went behind the scenes and actually sat in on some of these meetings, we got really smart people. Each has their own comparative advantage. We all get along and we all have great ideas and the president is the one who guides this whole thing.”

Navarro, who has had a major influence on the current tariff policy, engaged in a spat with Elon Musk after he criticized the Tesla CEO for relying too heavily on foreign parts for his car company. Musk called Navarro a “moron” who made “demonstrably false” claims about his company.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flew to Mar-a-Lago Sunday to encourage Trump to focus on trade negotiations with foreign countries to avoid more drops in the stock market. The Treasury secretary, along with U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer, were put in charge of negotiations with Japan, according to The New York Times.

The stock market initially plummeted when the tariffs were initially put in place. The Dow plunged 2,200 points on Friday, its worst decline since June 2020, as a result of the tariffs, causing concerns about a possible recession.

The Dow soared over 2,900 points, or 7.8%, on Wednesday following the 90-day pause announcement. The S&P 500 jumped 9.5% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 12.16%.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on X that Bessent and himself sat in the room with Trump as he announced the U.S. is raising tariffs against China by 125%. There was no mention of Navarro being in the room or having any influence over the decision.

Navarro told CNBC on Monday that the reciprocal tariffs placed on trading nations is to retaliate against unfair trade practices and to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.