Tag: Peter Navarro

Documents show Trump officials skirted rules to reward politically connected firms with huge pandemic contracts

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A top adviser to former President Donald Trump pressured agency officials to reward politically connected or otherwise untested companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts as part of a chaotic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the early findings of an inquiry led by House Democrats.

Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s deputy assistant and trade adviser, essentially verbally awarded a $96 million deal for respirators to a company with White House connections. Later, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were pressured to sign the contract after the fact, according to correspondence obtained by congressional investigators.

Documents obtained by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis after a year of resistance from the Trump administration offer new details about Navarro’s role in a largely secretive buying spree of personal protective equipment and medical supplies. Continue reading.

Top Trump adviser warned then-president on virus supply shortage, then pursued controversial deals

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Democrats probe more than $1 billion in ‘haphazard’ supply contracts arranged by Peter Navarro, citing new documents

A top adviser privately urged President Donald Trump to acquire critical medical supplies in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak — and after the warning was ignored, pursued his own ad hoc strategy that committed more than $1 billion in federal funds and has since prompted multiple probes, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators.

Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s trade adviser, warned the president on March 1, 2020, to “MOVE IN ‘TRUMP TIME’” to invest in ingredients for drugs, handheld coronavirus tests and other supplies to fight the virus, according to a memo obtained by the House’s select subcommittee on the coronavirus outbreak. Navarro also said that he’d been trying to acquire more protective gear like masks, critiquing the administration’s pace.

“There is NO downside risk to taking swift actions as an insurance policy against what may be a very serious public health emergency,” Navarro wrote to the president. “If the covid-19 crisis quickly recedes, the only thing we will have been guilty of is prudence.” At the time, there were about 100 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States and just two deaths linked to the outbreak. Continue reading.

White House blocks Navarro from testifying to House panel about ventilator deal

Michael Purpura, deputy counsel to President Donald Trump, wrote to Krishnamoorthi on Sept. 9 that the White House would not make Navarro available.

The White House has blocked trade adviser Peter Navarro from testifying at a House oversight hearing Wednesday about a partially canceled Defense Production Act contract to manufacture ventilators.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who heads the Oversight Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee, issued a staff report in late July that argued the administration vastly overpaid Philips Respironics, agreeing to a $646.7 million deal without even trying to negotiate a lower price.

“Despite the astonishing scale of this waste, the loss of more than 190,000 lives and his willingness to appear on the cable news shows of his choice—Mr. Navarro refuses to appear before Congress to answer for his actions,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. Continue reading.

Jake Tapper Abruptly Ends Interview With Trump Aide: ‘Just Answer The Question’

The CNN host asked White House trade adviser Peter Navarro why the president misled the public on the coronavirus. It didn’t go well.

CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday abruptly ended an interview with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro following a tense exchange about President Donald Trump’s decision to initially downplay the threat of the coronavirus.

During a segment on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Tapper asked Navarro to discuss a Feb. 7 recording with journalist Bob Woodward, released last week, in which Trump said the virus is five times deadlier than the flu.

In the weeks following the recorded conversation, Trump continued to hold large rallies despite knowing the virus was airborne and deadly. On Feb. 26, he told reporters that the flu was more dangerous than the coronavirus. Continue reading.

The White House is trying hard to throw Peter Navarro under the bus — let’s wish them well

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The sheer number of sources on this Washington Post report of abusive behavior by and the belligerent wrongness of Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has for some reason inserted himself into a position of prime and unqualified decision-making on the administration’s COVID-19 pandemic responses, sends a clear message: Team Trump is trying very hard to push Peter Navarro under the bus, but Navarro is such a nasty old cuss that nobody can quite get him to stay under there.

That Navarro’s pandemic decisions have been questionable is not news. Navarro’s focus on hydroxychloroquine sent the administration far down a useless path. His push for reforming Eastman Kodak into a drug producer quickly turned into a federal investigation on possible insider trading. His self-lauded contract purchasing ventilators at a near-500% markup from what they might normally go for was met with derision and, eventually, scaled down drastically. Those are all known instances of Navarro screwups.

What we didn’t know, but should have guessed, is that Navarro is a living bloody terror to work with, something akin to putting mittens on a rabid wolverine, giving him his own office, and Just Seeing How That Goes. Navarro was so consistently abusive towards women on his staff, reports the Post, that then-Chief of Staff John Kelly ordered the White House Counsel’s office to launch an investigation. Navarro only kept his job because that investigation concluded Navarro was a raging asshole to absolutely everyone. Continue reading.

Watch: Trump trade adviser loses it when CNN corners him on complaints about his professional conduct

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On CNN Thursday, anchor Alisyn Camerota confronted White House trade adviser Peter Navarro about his reported misconduct allegations — and he lost his temper and accused it of being a fabrication by Amazon and Jeff Bezos to railroad him.

“There’s a few investigations that have come to light about your style and your handling of the procurement, so let’s go through them,” said Camerota. “The House Oversight Committee is looking at your procurement of ventilators, and they say that you were working with Phillips which is a technology company, and that you — they believe, wasted half a billion dollars — $500 million by agreeing to pay Phillips to make ventilators at price five times the amount that the Obama administration paid. So is that true and why?”

“No, it’s not true,” said Navarro. “All that stuff you’re seeing in the fake news — look, Alisyn, let’s be honest here. When somebody from the Democratic-controlled House does an investigation of this administration, that is a partisan witch hunt.” Continue reading.

Tactics of fiery White House trade adviser draw new scrutiny as some of his pandemic moves unravel

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Peter Navarro has faced an internal investigation into his treatment of colleagues, and now two of his coronavirus-related actions are under internal scrutiny

Amid the Trump administration’s troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic, senior White House aide Peter Navarro has refashioned himself as a powerful government purchasing chief, operating far beyond his original role as an adviser on trade policy.

But U.S. officials say the abrasive figure’s shortcomings as a manager could influence how well prepared the United States is for a second wave of coronavirus infections expected this fall.

Navarro’s harsh manner and disregard for protocol have alienated numerous colleagues, corporate executives and prominent Republicans. In a previously undisclosed incident, the White House Counsel’s Office in 2018 investigated Navarro’s behavior in response to repeated complaints and found he routinely had been verbally abusive toward others. Navarro narrowly avoided losing his job, but the abuse has continued as the White House has grappled with the pandemic, multiple administration officials said. Continue reading.

‘The Lord’ Created Executive Orders, Proclaims White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro

The creator stepped in “because of partisan bickering and divided government,” Navarro said on “Meet the Press.”

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday that “the Lord” created executive orders to trump partisan bickering.

That probably wouldn’t hold up against a court challenge to controversial executive actions President Donald Trump signed Saturday. House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the orders “absurdly unconstitutional.”

Navarro told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that The “Lord and the Founding Fathers created executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government. That’s what we have here, but the president has taken action.” Continue reading.

TikTok’s fate was shaped by a ‘knockdown, drag-out’ Oval Office brawl

Washington Post logoTrump advisers Mnuchin and Navarro fought over TikTok as Silicon Valley dealmakers tried to get closer to Trum

Last week, as leaders in Silicon Valley, China and Washington raced to seal the fate of one of the world’s fastest-growing social media companies, a shouting match broke out in the Oval Office between two of President Trump’s top advisers.

In front of Trump, trade adviser Peter Navarro and other aides late last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin began arguing that the Chinese-owned video-sharing service TikTok should be sold to a U.S. company. Mnuchin had talked several times to Microsoft’s senior leaders and was confident that he had rallied support within the administration for a sale to the tech giant on national security grounds.

Navarro pushed back, demanding an outright ban of TikTok, while accusing Mnuchin of being soft on China, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions freely. The treasury secretary appeared taken aback, they said. Continue reading.

USA Today, facing backlash, says Navarro opinion piece attacking Fauci does not meet its standards

Washington Post logoFacing intense criticism on social media, USA Today has admitted errors in an opinion piece written by a White House official that attacked Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious-disease expert, saying in a post-publication note attached to the piece that it “did not meet USA TODAY’s fact-checking standards.”

Published online Tuesday evening and in print Wednesday, the opinion piece was authored by Peter Navarro, who heads the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and was paired with the provocative headline: “Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”

On Wednesday evening, editorial page editor Bill Sternberg added a note that explained the piece’s origins as well as its mistakes. Continue reading.