Getty Images White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro sees a conspiracy.
Peter Navarro on Friday ratcheted up the rhetoric on China in what could be aimed as much at his fellow White House advisers as outsiders.
The director of the White House National Trade Council and Office of Trade & Manufacturing Policy went to the CSIS think tank to decry what he saw as a conspiracy.
‘As part of a Chinese government influence operation, globalist billionaires are putting the full court press on the White House in advance of the G-20 in Argentina.’ Peter Navarro
Navarro didn’t identify the chief executives allegedly applying the pressure.
The rate of tariffs on some $200 billion of Chinese goods is scheduled to climb to 25% from 10% in the absence of a deal by Jan. 1.
Navarro said President Donald Trump has done “an incredible job” standing up to what he called “globalist elites.”
“Donald Trump has done an amazing job of addressing that issue and he didn’t need the help of Wall Street, he didn’t need the help of Goldman Sachs GS, -1.76% and he doesn’t need it now,” Navarro said.
The use of “globalist” by Trump and other White House officials has been criticized for its anti-Semitic overtones, given its white nationalist origins, particularly in the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre.
Navarro’s use of Goldman Sachs is a reminder that the bank was the former employer of current Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as well as former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, both who have steered Trump toward more conciliatory approaches on trade.
The U.S. dollar DXY, +0.31% extended gains after the Navarro remarks.
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