It's been four months since President Trump teased steel and aluminum tariffs on some of America's biggest trade partners. It's also been four months since White House trade adviser Peter Navarro guessed the result of those tariffs way, way wrong.
When Navarro appeared on Fox Business Network's Mornings with Maria on March 2 to defend the then-rumored tariffs, host Maria Bartiromo asked how countries would react to the taxes.
"Should we expect China and others to come back and say, 'Oh really America? Well take this, I'm going to raise tariffs and retaliate on farm goods, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Cummins engines, John Deere tractors ...'" Bartiromo asked. "Are you expecting China to come back with retaliation?"
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"I don't believe any country is going to retaliate for the simple reason that we are the most lucrative and biggest market in the world," Navarro responded. "They know they're cheating us, and all we're doing is standing up for ourselves."
Fast forward to July 2. The tariffs on Canada, China, and the EU are real. Harley-Davidson is moving production of some European-bound cycles overseas. China and the EU heaved tariff after tariff on U.S. goods. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did the same — and defended his country's dignity while doing so.
Oh how the tariffs have turned.
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