Navarro approach rubs GOP the wrong way amid trade war

Peter Navarro’s bullish personality is rubbing some Trump allies the wrong way as he takes center stage in the battle over tariffs and butts heads with other top officials in the White House.

Some Republican lawmakers say Navarro’s temperament makes them nervous about where the trade war could take the U.S. economy.

“He’s so crass. His personality is so abrupt and so certain,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said. “If he was a doctor, you’d say he has a bad bedside manner.”

Notably, when President Trump on Wednesday imposed a 125 percent tariff on China and implemented a 90-day pause on other trading partners, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went to speak to reporters about details of the pause — without Navarro.

Divisions within Trump World had already exploded into public view earlier this week when Elon Musk called the Trump trade adviser “dumber than a sack of bricks.”