Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser has told a Sky News reporter to “stop that crap” while facing questions over the US president’s tariffs policy.
Peter Navarro insisted Mr Trump was “negotiating strategically” after Sky’s US correspondent Mark Stone said the president “seems to be changing his mind by the hour at the moment”.
Mr Trump had announced an increased tariff of 50% on Canadian steel and aluminium on Tuesday but then halted the plan just hours later.
There are, however, 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US in effect from today, affecting UK products worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
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Mr Navarro said: “The policy is ‘no exemptions, no exclusions’ and that will change if the president changes his policy.
“But there’s a very good reason why ‘no exemptions, no exclusions’ exists as a policy because when we were kind enough as a country to make those kind of gestures to our friends, they bit the hand that fed them and that’s not going to happen again.”
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In response, Stone said: “The president seems to be changing his mind by the hour at the moment. What are your views on the fact that…”
Mr Navarro replied: “Sir, you don’t understand what a negotiation looks like. The president is negotiating strategically. So stop with the rhetoric, okay? Just stop that crap.”
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Stone said: “But he does seem to be changing his mind all the time…”
Mr Navarro responded: “Stop that crap. That’s a bunch of cr…”
When Stone said it was “causing havoc to the stock markets”, Mr Navarro responded: “It’s not causing havoc.”
