Pete Navarro says GDP figures should be ‘positive news’published at 15:24 British Summer Time
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House
Just a few moments ago, we heard from Donald Trump’s trade advisor Pete Navarro – who walked up to a group of journalists with the words “what’s up, team?” after doing a live TV hit.
In brief remarks before he entered the West Wing, Navarro said that, in the administration’s views, data showing that the US economy shrank in the first quarter “should be positive news” that has been skewed by an uptick in imports.
“What happened with the numbers today is that we had a fairly extraordinary surge of imports, driven by the rest of the world trying to get their products in here before the tariffs,” he says.
“Next time, that won’t be the case at all, and it will reverse,” he says.
Additionally, Navarro pointed to a 22% increase in domestic investment – which he described as “literally off the charts” as a positive sign.
Asked about Trump’s earlier Truth Social post asking people to patient, Navarro says that Trump “inherited a tremendously bad set of economic policies” from the Biden administration.
“The fruit of the that poison by the tree is a series of spending bills that had drawn debt over a fiscal cliff.”
Navarro was also asked about potential trade deals with China and India, but declined to give specifics.
“Deals are coming,” he said as he walked away. “Just be patient.”