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Meet The Press - with, dumber than a sack of bricks, Peter Navarro [1]

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Date: 2025-04-13

Kristen Welker looked like she was having fun this morning when she was repeating the news about Elon Musk calling Peter Navarro a moron and dumb as a sack of bricks.

Guess who her first guest was? Peter Navarro. He was sitting right there when she reported Musk's comments.

The first question was:

Kristen: How can consumers and businesses make decisions when it seems the President's trade policies are shifting on a moments notice?

Peter: So, this is unfolding exactly like we thought it would, in a dominant scenario. What's been going on here...The world's been cheating us. They've been cheating us for decades...They cheat us with the non tariff barriers, the VAT tax, dumping, the currency manipulation, the technical barriers that keep our autos out of Japan...We transfer $1.2 trillion dollars of wealth this way each year…

He never answered the question Kristen asked. "Unfolding exactly how we thought it would." If this was the original plan, then Donald Trump wanted to tank the stock market to the tune of 6 trillion dollars and counting.

Peter: We set the tariffs knowing full well that they would be coming to us and want to bargain. We've got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here. It was par for the course...

Kristen: You're talking about the White House having a strategy. The Commerce Secretary the Treasury Secretary, even the president, said that there would not be exclusions, and yet yesterday there were exclusions. So, is there, in fact, a plan, or is the president making this up as he goes along?

Peter: So, the policy is no exemptions, no exclusions…

Kristen: But there were exclusions…

Navarro sidesteps to tariffs on fentanyl on the border. There are no tariffs on illegal drugs. You either seize them or they go through. He brings up IEEPA, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to deflect.

Kristen wouldn't let him get away from exclusions and exceptions. He wouldn't answer so Kristen talked about rising prices:

Kristen: How long will this transition of uncertainty last?

Another song and dance from Navarro and he promises a 50,000 Dow Jones average. Doesn't say when.

Kristen: How many countries is the president negotiating with to get a trade deal?

Navarro rattles off a number of countries but never gives a total. Kristen then ask asks about China and Navarro says that they're open to talking to China. Trump's last word was a 145% tariff and that he wasn't going to talk to them, and they were calling him a joke. Navarro can't answer the question so he starts talking about fentanyl again from China. It seems like fentanyl is the popular sidestep of choice when anyone is asked about tariffs. Stopping fentanyl justifies everything.

Kristen: Elon Musk was advocating a zero tariff policy, did he win the argument?

Peter: Elon and I are just great.…

Kristen: Even though he called you a moron and dumber than a sack of bricks?

Peter: I've been called worse, everything is fine.

Kristen: What about the reports that you've been sidelined? Is that true? Yes or no because we're out of time.

Peter: I'm here. I'm here. I'm on Meet the Press.

That was the end of Navarro. Next was the co-founder of Bridgewater Associates, the fourth largest hedge fund manager. He explained how the world works and he didn't like the lightning bolt way Trump's tariffs were were being implemented, and how things work after they are. He obviously was not a fan of Trump but didn't step on Trump's toes for obvious reasons.

Then Cory Booker came on and Kristen asked him at length about the tariffs, which he denounced as chaotic. Then she followed up with questions on potential insider trading regarding Trump's on again off again tariff changes and Cory said that the Trump administration is doing everything to block the agencies in control of government finances and it's Congress's job to do oversight on exactly what happened and who benefited. Then she got to Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Kristen: Do you think the Trump administration has defied a court order?

Cory: It certainly appears that they are. And they're trying to play too cute with parsing words.... this is a democratic slippage, and we should all be speaking out against it.

Kristen asked him about whether he would support vice president Harris running for president in 2028 and he said he was more concerned with the present. She asked him whether he was going to run in 2028 and he said he was concentrating on being re-elected in 2026 as senator. I was sorry that she didn't ask him about his speech on the Senate floor, because I don't think she's talked to him about it, while covering it.

Then the panel came on to talk about tariffs. The best line was using Mike Tyson, who said that everyone has a plan, until you're punched in the face. And that's what's happening with the tariffs.

I hate to say that I agree with Elon Musk, but Peter Navarro is a moron, and dumb as a sack of bricks. Every time he opens his mouth he proves it. And he does it very convincingly.

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