Navarro defended Trump’s tariffs both for their own sake and as a negotiating tactic. He lamented that the United States runs a $1 trillion trade deficit, which he said is equivalent to transferring that amount of money from the U.S. to other countries each year.

The Trump administration’s senior trade counselor also dismissed concerns that the president forced only minor concessions from Canada and Mexic

President Trump will talk with Chinese leader Xi Jinping today about a potential tariff pause, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said this morning at a Politico event. The Trump administration had previously said that the two leaders would speak this week,