Jim Cramer's Full Interview of Peter Navarro On 1st Quarter GDP Report

"Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, joins CNBC’s ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss the most recent GDP print, whether new trade deals are imminent, tariffs on semiconductors, and more... 

Source:CNBC talking to the man with the longest job title in Washington.

From CNBC

From Newsweek: 

"Peter Navarro, Donald Trump's chief trade adviser, has claimed the economic data that showed the U.S. economy had contracted by 0.3 percent actually showed positive news.

Speaking to CNBC, Navarro said that, if the negative effect of the surge in imports because of Trump's tariffs is removed, "you have three percent growth."

Navarro said, "I got to say just one thing about today's news, that's the best negative print I have ever seen in my life. And the markets need to look beneath the surface of that.

"We had a 22 percent increase in domestic investment. That is off the charts. When you strip our inventories and the negative effects of the surge in imports because of the tariffs you have three percent growth, so we really like where we are at now," he added... 

From Newsweek

Earlier today on The New Democrat: 

"When Americans spend less money because: 

A. they don't have it to spend

B. the costs of what they want to buy is now too expensive 

C. is probably the right reason here: what they want to buy is not currently available because people stocked up on while they could still afford it and the prices went up on it because of tariffs. 

The American economy (whether you like it, or not) is a consumer driven economy. It's dependent on innovation and consumer spending to drive economic growth. So when you unilaterally make products that Americans want to buy more expensive, they buy less of them and that weakens economic growth. 

And because of Donald Trump's economic protectionism, America not just lost the $600 billion that it gained from the last quarter of 2024, but it lost an additional $100 billion during the 1st quarter of 2025. 

So we can either blame President Trump's tariffs for the lost of economic growth because his policy is driving it, or we could blame The Invisible Man. But since no one has ever seen or met The Invisible Man before, (ha, ha) the safe bet is President Donald J. Trump. " 

From The New Democrat

In case there's any doubt left in the world about how little respect The New Democrat has for Peter Navarro... you obviously don't read The New Democrat: 

"If you think about it, Elon Musk could've been harder on Peter Navarro than he was and I'll give you a few examples: 

"What does a convicted felon know about economic policy anyway: 

What does he know about prices in this country, other than what food and clothing costs at his prison commissary? 

If Peter Navarro is so smart, how come he got caught, convicted, and landed in prison? Good thing for him, the 2024 RNC started the day he got out of prison, otherwise he would've had to watch it in the prison day room and wonder if he would even survived the experience. 

When has Peter Navarro ever had a job in his life where he wasn't working for Donald Trump? The President probably only hired him because he feels sorry for the poor schmuck, who can't get a good job anywhere else, because he's a convicted felon. And he didn't want to embarrass Navarro by having him take his next order for a Diet Coke, quarter pounder, with fries,  at a local McDonald's." 

(Mr. President, you want fries with that? Yes, Peter. And please keep your voice down so no one here figures out that we know each other.)

Just for the record: I'm not saying that Elon Musk said any of these things about Peter Navarro... publicly... 

From The New Democrat

"So I guess the answer to Senator Tom Tillis's question: "Whose Throat Do I Get To Choke If Tariff Approach Fails?" would be: Peter Navarro. I guess you say Wall Street investor Ron Vara as well. But Peter Nevarro would be easier for Senator Tillis to find right now. Unless Mr. Navarro found some White House tunnel that not even the Secret Service knows about and is now hiding there. Sort of how he came up with his tariff policy that almost no one seems to believe in. The man seems to be able to find things that no one else can... 

From The New Democrat

So there are a couple of things that really stand out about this interview: 

1. "Peter Navarro, Donald Trump's chief trade adviser, has claimed the economic data that showed the U.S. economy had contracted by 0.3 percent actually showed positive news.

Speaking to CNBC, Navarro said that, if the negative effect of the surge in imports because of Trump's tariffs is removed, "you have three percent growth...

So President Trump's "Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and national Defense Production Act policy coordinator" (they would've gave him a longer job title. But the English language only has so many words) admitting that: 

"If the negative effect of the surge in imports because of Trump's tariffs is removed, "you have three percent growth... 

Mr. Navarro is admitting that President's Trump's tariffs, are the reason for the negative GDP growth report yesterday. So he's admitting that his own tariff policy (and this is the economic policy that he gave to the President, that the President adopted) sent the American economy into retraction during the 1st quarter of 2025. 

If you watched the CNBC interview, you might have thought Jim Cramer gave Mr. Navarro a softball, or home run derby interview. But the fact that Mr. Navarro admitted on live, national TV, that President Trump's tariff policy is responsible for the negative economic growth that we had in the 1st quarter, Cramer might have thought: 

"He just admitted what I wanted to hear, but wasn't expecting. I can play nice now". 

2. Peter Navarro saying: "I got to say just one thing about today's news, that's the best negative print I have ever seen in my life. And the markets need to look beneath the surface of that... 

The 2nd Navarro quote takes me back to Donald Trump on the campaign trail both in 2016 and 2024 when he said: "I only hire the best and the brightest." Really? Does that mean: 

Mr. Trump only hires the "best and the brightest" who just got out of prison? 

Perhaps Mr. Trump only hires white-collar felons and not violent felons, when it comes to his felon employment staff. 

Wait, I got it: "the best and the brightest" is not available right now, because Donald Trump is currently President. So "the best and the brightest" is really just another way of saying "the best of what's currently available". 

I mean saying: 

"That's the best negative print I have ever seen in my life... would be like saying: 

A head coach (name the sport) saying: "That's the best losing team I've ever had". 

Or a businessman saying: "That's the least amount of money that my company has ever lost". 

Or a full-time political candidate (but only because they've never actually won an election) saying: "That's the closest I've ever come to winning an election". 

And you are saying all of these things, or just 1 of those things, perhaps somewhere in-between... as if you are trying to impress someone. The Trump Administration right now looks like a full-time daycare facility, where the parents are thinking they can just leave their kids (meaning the Trump Economic Council) there indefinitely. With the staff at the facility thinking when will the adults come back and take back their damn kids.

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