Peter Navarro, special counselor to the president, attempted to spin the GDP report as “very positive news” for Americans on Wednesday morning, touting how tariffs are driving a “tremendous amount” of domestic investment.
“This was the best negative print, as they say in the trade, for GDP I have ever seen in my life. It really should be very positive news for America,” Navarro told reporters at the White House.
While consumer spending slowed, businesses increased spending, as CNN reported, likely to get ahead of price increases due to tariffs. But the US economy saw its worst quarter since 2022, according to a new GDP report from the Commerce Department, registering at a rate of -0.3%. The Dow was down 700 points, or 1.73%, Wednesday morning. The S&P 500 fell 2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 2.5%.
“We’ve seen amidst the media barrage against the Trump tariffs and warnings and all of that, a slight deterioration of consumer sentiment and to a certain extent, business sentiment. That’s what we call soft data. But when you look at the hard data, all we’re seeing is good, strong news,” Navarro said.
CNN asked Navarro why, if the reports are good news, President Donald Trump tried to blame former President Joe Biden for an “Overhang” and leaving “us with bad numbers” in a social media post Wednesday morning.
“There’s two things going on here,” Navarro said. “We inherited a tremendously bad set of economic policies from Joe Biden. The fruit of that ‘poison Biden tree’ is a series of spending bills which have drawn our debt far over a fiscal cliff and we’re trying to bring that back with the tax bill and the reorientation of spending.”
Recent analysis of congressional Republicans’ tax bill suggest it would add trillions of dollars to the deficit over a decade, even with the potential spending cuts being pushed by party leadership.
Asked about trade deals, Navarro said: “Deals are coming, just be patient,” as he walked toward the West Wing.