Oh good, Trump's top trade guy thinks tariffs are 'tax cuts'

Peter Navarro, senior trade advisor to President Donald Trump, shown in 2022.

Peter Navarro, senior trade advisor to President Donald Trump, was on CNBC Thursday, doing what he does best: insisting that reality isn’t real. He was there to spin the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ announcement that wholesale costs spiked last month due to Trump’s ill-advised tariffs. But for Navarro, facts are optional.

Peter Navarro: Are tariffs price hikes or tax cuts? I say they're tax cuts. 

CNBC host Sara Eisen: I mean, many economists would say that they're tax hikes, because ultimately a consumer will pay for some of the increased prices. 

Navarro: That debate has been going on since the first term, and most economists just don't agree with us. The problem with most economists is they got it wrong the first time around. Just spectacularly wrong. So who has credibility here?

There are zero economists not named Peter Navarro who consider tariffs “tax cuts.” In fact, consumer prices increased across the major sectors that Trump targeted for tariffs in his first term.

In March, Navarro claimed Trump’s tariffs on Canada had nothing to do with tax policy at all. At that spin session, he claimed Trump was using tariffs to block the fentanyl illegally crossing our border.

The credibility of Navarro, who spent four months in prison for contempt of Congress, can be summed up in his sycophantic devotion in lathering up his boss’ ego, including saying that Trump should win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.