Navarro defends Trump stopping COVID aid talks, says president has 'taken action in face of inaction'
White House trade adviser accuses Dems of not wanting to help economy before election
President Trump is the only person who has taken any action to help Americans during the coronavirus pandemic since the passage of the CARES Act in March, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox Business Network's “The Claman Countdown” Tuesday.
"The only person who has acted since the phase 3 vote has been Donald Trump," Navarro told host Liz Claman shortly after Trump annouced that he was walking away from negotiations over a so-called "phase 4" stimulus bill until after next month's presidential election.
"The president has taken action in face of inaction," added Navarro, who accused congressional Democrats of not wanting "to do anything to help the economy in the short run for fear it helps the Trump campaign."
The president's announcement caused the major indexes to plummet in the final hour of trading Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 375 points.
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION RULES US TARIFFS ON CHINESE GOODS WORTH $200B ARE ILLEGAL
Navarro also discussed the declining U.S. trade deficit with China, which he said shows that “tariffs work to defend the American blue-collar worker from Chinese predatory practices and the unfair trade practices of the rest of the world.”
However, foreign imports into the U.S. are currently higher than they were before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Commerce Department, out-of-nation imports increased by 3.2% from August 2019 to August 2020. Navarro argued this isn't bad news.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
“The United States economy is actually relatively stronger than a lot of other major economies as we’re moving through the pandemic,” he said. “And what that does is suck in some of these imports.”
As a whole, Navarro added, trade deficit numbers as a percentage of GDP have been declining under President Trump and emphasized that focus should be on American production during the pandemic.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
“That’s the mission of President Trump,” he said. “He is the blue-collar president. He is the party of the working class.”