Mulvaney says he ‘would have fired’ Navarro during first Trump term

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said he would have fired trade adviser Peter Navarro during President Trump’s first term.

Mulvaney joined CNBC amid Navarro’s ongoing spat with tech billionaire and close Trump ally Elon Musk over the president’s tariff agenda.

“I would have fired him when he got caught making up his academic sources with his Ron Vara imaginary friend,” Mulvaney said, pointing to Navarro’s 2019 scandal where he faked being one of his own academic sources. “But, I mean, that was Donald Trump’s call.”

Mulvaney, who is a contributor for NewsNation, noted the argument between Musk and Navarro over tariffs points to a larger problem. He argued the senior trade adviser is “not a reliable source” of information.

“This is more than just about an inter sort of squabble inside the White House,” Mulvaney said. “This is important.”

Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency and has become a senior Trump adviser, called Navarro a “moron” online in response to claims made about his Tesla manufacturing and assembly process.

Navarro said parts used in Musk’s Tesla’s were imported from Japan, China and Taiwan, arguing the Trump administration was placing the tariffs to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Musk pushed back on the claim, calling it false.

Mulvaney, who served in the first Trump administration until March 2020, argued there is “no question” that Navarro is “really tough” to work with.

“One of the things that makes him so difficult to work with is that he pretends to speak for the president when he does not,” he said. “Peter was notorious back during Trump 1.0 to walk out of a meeting when everybody would sort of assume we’ve got sort of a consensus about something and he would go on TV and say the exact opposite.”

“That has a tremendous demoralizing effect on the White House, and it does tend to mislead markets,” Mulvaney added.

The White House defended the disagreement between the top officials, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying “boys will be boys.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai defended Navarro in a statement to The Hill. 

“Peter Navarro, the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, correctly identified the threat of China’s mercantilist policies against the United States over 20 years ago, a theory considered outlandish until President Trump cemented it as the mainstream political consensus,” Desai’s statement said. “Peter Navarro’s brilliant insights make him a critical asset for President Trump’s historic effort to finally address America’s national emergency of chronic trade deficits and vision to restore American Greatness.” 

Updated at 1:24 p.m. EDT