Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser has told a Sky News reporter to “stop that crap” while facing questions over the US president’s tariffs policy.

Peter Navarro insisted Mr Trump was “negotiating strategically” after Sky’s US correspondent Mark Stone said the president “seems to be changing his mind by the hour at the moment”.

Mr Trump had announced an increased tariff of 50% on Canadian steel and aluminium on Tuesday but then halted the plan just hours later.

There are, however, 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US in effect from today, affecting UK products worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Follow latest: World retaliates against Trump tariffs

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Peter Navarro responded to questions about tariffs

Mr Navarro said: “The policy is ‘no exemptions, no exclusions’ and that will change if the president changes his policy.

“But there’s a very good reason why ‘no exemptions, no exclusions’ exists as a policy because when we were kind enough as a country to make those kind of gestures to our friends, they bit the hand that fed them and that’s not going to happen again.”

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Accessibility but not transparency?

It’s worth saying upfront that the Trump administration has been significantly more accessible than the Biden administration.

It was rare for Biden officials to appear outside the White House for impromptu moments with reporters.

A large cast of Trump officials are frequently in front of the cameras. That’s encouraging.

That said accessibility isn’t the same as transparency. Just because the officials are out there doesn’t mean they welcome robust interrogation.

Peter Navarro’s pushback at my questions was surprising and revealing. I’ve questioned him a few times over the past few weeks. His engagement has been calm but not this time.

He was irritated certainly, rattled maybe; wholly unwilling to accept that the markets had reacted negatively to what he called ‘Trump-omics’.

He said the president’s flip-flopping was simply a negotiation tactic – so not the revenue generator they have been presented as.

If they are simply a negotiating tactic, then are they temporary? If so, how does the administration raise its revenue?

In response, Stone said: “The president seems to be changing his mind by the hour at the moment. What are your views on the fact that…”

Mr Navarro replied: “Sir, you don’t understand what a negotiation looks like. The president is negotiating strategically. So stop with the rhetoric, okay? Just stop that crap.”

Stone said: “But he does seem to be changing his mind all the time…”

Mr Navarro responded: “Stop that crap. That’s a bunch of cr…”

When Stone said it was “causing havoc to the stock markets”, Mr Navarro responded: “It’s not causing havoc.”

Who is Peter Navarro?

In 2017, during the last Trump presidency, Politico suggested Navarro was “the most dangerous man in Trump world”.

Navarro is a long-time aide and confidante of Donald Trump and a true loyalist.

His economic views are well beyond mainstream economic thought. He is a long-time advocate of tariffs with upfront plans to upend the post-WW2 economic system of free trade and international institutions.

Establishment economists consider him to be fringe. That’s precisely why he appeals to President Trump.

He was jailed in 2024 for defying a congressional subpoena. He was told to appear before the House Select Committee investigating the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol. He refused to comply.

The committee alleged that he developed plans to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.

The subpoena was motivated by a plan Navarro revealed in a book published in 2021.

“Green Bay Sweep” was a plot by he and other Trump loyalists to overturn the 2020 election.

He described it as “last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats’ jaws of deceit.”