The Hill (Newsnation) – Senior Trade Counselor Peter Navarro Interview
BLAKE BURMAN: Peter Navarro, thanks for being with us here on the Hill once again, always appreciate the time, sir. Let's start with the big news of the day, which is the jobs report. Just 73,000 jobs created last month. Only 14,000 and 19,000 created the two months prior. Why
SENIOR TRADE COUNSELOR PETER NAVARRO: I have to ask the BLS for that. It's an unsettling pattern, but the BBL S doesn't seem to be able to get that jobs done right? This has been going on for over a year. It's either incompetence or political interference either way ahead, rolled today, and that's appropriate because this simply isn't right. I tell you this, Blake, here's the most important thing I can tell you about that Miss today, is that if we had gotten that data when we should have got that data, the Federal Reserve yesterday would've lowered interest rates by at least 50 basis points.
BURMAN: You think so
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: This kind of incompetence or political, no question about it. Look, you had three months that were two months that were revised significantly downward. One which was lower than expectations. I mean the Fed, that's a completely different picture. I mean, there was a strong case for a 50. There's an overwhelming case for a 50 basis point cut. They might even have gone a hundred basis points if they'd been getting the right date about unemployment. Because remember, the Fed's decision is a two parameter decision. What's going on with inflation? What's going on with the unemployment rate and the jobs? So during the campaign, it was very frustrating to me as a macro economist. That's kind of what I did for years forecasting. It's like, why can't they get this right? And then every time they were having these over in 2024
BURMAN: but how do you square Peter, how do you square Peter though? You talk about a head rolling and it's the BLS commissioner, the president says the numbers are rigged, the numbers are fake at this point in time. But now you know this Peter, that there's going to be a sizable portion of this country who doesn't believe the numbers going forward because there's going to be a real question of, well, is the Trump administration now cooking the numbers?
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Well, people don't believe the numbers anyway. I mean, how can you believe the numbers when for over a year? Now the BLS has consistently gotten it wrong in a pattern, which in 2024 suggested that they were trying to prop up Biden Harris for the election. So I think what's going to happen here is we're going to get somebody who knows what they're doing will be able to accurately forecast numbers and the proof will be in the pudding. Like how many times they get it right? How many times did they have to significantly revise? I mean, this one, look, this is not a new story, Blake. This went on repeatedly in 2024 in a clear pattern of partisanship. And so this is healthy. These career bureaucrats and people been in government, these people just got to get out of the way and replaced by competent people, competent people.
BURMAN: But heres what the numbers do, show
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: What's been happening is not competent.
BURMAN: Here's what the numbers do show though, Peter, which is the last three months, 204,000 jobs created in healthcare, and when you combine every other industry together, it's a loss of 98,000 jobs. It's essentially two different job markets right now. Is that how you see it?
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: What's interesting to me, very deep there is that the number of jobs that have been created for native Americans, Americans have gone up over a million. There's significant, well, the ones who are illegal aliens have gone down and on net we're better off. So that's something you won't hear reported very often, but it's right there in the numbers. So pick your number. Here's the thing, Blake, despite what that number looks like, this economy is healthy in the sense that we've got the tax cuts, the big beautiful bill in place. We're seeing tremendous investment because of the a hundred percent expensive because of the trade deals bringing things here. I mean, we've got a really good trajectory going forward. So these numbers today, the only thing that people should take away from the numbers today is that the BLS doesn't know what the hell it's doing and it's time to flush that toilet.
BURMAN: You say though it's a healthy economy, we also see the Fed's preferred metric of inflation ticking up. So how do you square prices slightly going up
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: With the numbers? No, no, no. They're not ticking up. It's been on a steady trend down, and if you're citing like a 10th of a percentage point in one of the numbers that just came out this week, that's not ticking up, that dog won't hunt the reality. The question is for the Federal Reserve.
BURMAN: If the Fed's worried about it though, Peter, you know that it
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Should cut rates and it should have cut. No, the Fed's not worried about it. J Powell doesn't know what he's doing, is worried about it. And four Democrats on the Fed are going along with Powell. I think one of them resigned today. So we're going to be able to get at least
BURMAN: Three Governor
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Republicans on governor there. And Blake, for the first time since 1993, we had two Fed governors publicly dissent. I think the reality here is President Trump pointed out is it costs us a third of a trillion dollars, a third of a trillion dollars to be 100 basis points over where we should be, and we're at least that. And what happens is it costs us more to finance our debt. It costs us in terms of a damp down on the GDP, it's about 750,000 jobs we don't create. I mean, think about that. If the fed's missing by just a half a point, that's 750,000 jobs we don't create. Now, put that together now with the jobs report that came out today. If the Fed's been too high, interest rates for the last six months or three, whatever that accounts for what's going on
BURMAN: Next Fed meeting in September. Of course, as you and I both know, but for our audience, lemme leave you with this. A story that we've been covering, Peter, I think more than anyone, which is the US investment in rare earth companies. And it's really a story about the US and China because it's about rare earths and the future. There was a report out, Peter, that you told a room of rare earth mineral companies that the MP materials deal, which the Pentagon invested $400 million in that company is not a one-off. Should we expect the US government, should we expect the Trump administration to be making more investments in private American companies on this front?
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Absolutely. And Blake, the way to think about this is that rare earths which create the magnets, which go into all our high tech products, from small iPhones to big automobiles and F 35 jets is just a subset of what we call critical minerals. So there's things like gallium that aren't rare earths that we also need. So we had a great meeting last week. David Copley is helping to run all of this effort and what we're trying to do in Trump time. How many companies, because I'm up against during the former set,
BURMAN: Yeah, I'm up against time here. How many companies are we talking about? Several.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: A lot. And we're going more, it's like we're going to have a lot of deals to fill out the supply chain. That's the strategy across critical minerals. We build our supply chain, we build our expertise in that area, and we achieve critical mineral dominance over time, just like we have strategic energy dominance.
BURMAN: Peter Navarro with us tonight
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Here, by the way. You guys have been doing good.
BURMAN: Yep, we've been on that. And we'll continue. Peter Navarro, always appreciate the time. Talk soon.
