The Trump administration’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, told Wall Street bankers and hedge-fund manager in a speech Friday to stay out of President Donald Trump’s affairs in regards to pushing for a trade deal with China.
Per Bloomberg:
“As part of a Chinese government influence operation, these global billionaires are putting a full-court press on the White House in advance of the G-20 in Argentina,” Navarro said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Friday. Their mission is to “pressure this president into some kind of deal” but instead they’re weakening his negotiating position and “no good can come of this.”
Navarro said investors should re-direct their billions of dollars into helping areas in the U.S. hit by job losses.
“Wall Street, get out of those negotiations,” Navarro said. “Bring your Goldman Sachs money to Dayton, Ohio, and invest in America.”
Navarro didn’t offer specifics as to who exactly is pressuring the Trump administration, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called on the president to make a deal with China and end the trade war.
Navarro’s comments however came just days after former Trump adviser and former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn took a shot at Navarro, saying Trump had found “one economist on Amazon who thinks trade deficits matter, and he listens to him.”
Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, another former Goldamn Sachs executive, differ from Navarro and how best to approach China. Like former adviser Steve Bannon, Navarro thinks a more confrontational approach to Beijing is best.
Trump and China President Xi Jinping will meet to discuss trade at the G-20 summit Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Trump has expressed optimism on Twitter that the two can come to an agreement. Though, Xi slammed Trump and his America First policies in a speech last week.
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