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.

President Donald Trump has once again thrust trade policy into the spotlight, threatening to impose sweeping 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada. This bold move comes as a shock to many, given the recent ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was meant to usher in a new era of North American economic cooperation.