Trump advisor's Wall St criticism 'way off base': official
A top White House economic advisor on Tuesday publicly rebuked a fellow aide over firebrand speech attacking Wall Street's involvement the US-China trade war. Top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said trade advisor Peter Navarro was "way off base" in his comments, and were not authorized. In an address to a Washington think tank on Friday, Navarro, head of a White House trade council, said Wall Street figures were pressuring the White House to reach a resolution with Beijing. Navarro, an anti-China firebrand, said President Donald Trump's bargaining position was being undermined by "unpaid foreign agents" and Wall Street "globalists," a term which frequently draws accusations of anti-Semitism. And Navarro said a deal with China agreed under pressure from Wall Street would bear a "stench." But Kudlow said Navarro's comments did not represent Trump's thinking. "He was not speaking for the president, nor was he speaking for the administration," Kudlow told CNBC. "His remarks were way off base, they were not authorized by anybody." He said Trump speaks to people on Wall Street, union leaders and others. "I think Peter very badly misspoke. He was freelancing and he's not representing the president or the administration." Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to discuss the US-China trade confrontation later this month during a Group of 20 summit in Argentina.
