Trump senior economic counselor Peter Navarro continues his gaslighting on the state of our economy. Navarro made an appearance on this weekend's Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, and once again tried to put a happy face on the damage Trump's tariffs have done to the consumers.
BARTIROMO: Can you assess the macroeconomic story for us and how it's impacting citizens today?
NAVARRO: Absolutely. It's the perfect Trump economy in 2026. It's what we call a Goldilocks economy. The last time we saw what we're seeing now was 1998.
And what are we seeing? We're seeing stock market over $50,000. That's Wall Street. But we're also seeing rising real wages. That's Main Street. We're seeing a return in manufacturing. We're seeing strong, strong growth. And it's all happening in a disinflation environment where we're at or Fed target. We're near Fed target.
And it's really extraordinary what's happening, Maria. You and I, your day job during the week is looking at these macro indicators. We've had the jobs report come in with blowout numbers.
We had the ISM manufacturing index, which is dear to my heart, because I'm the counsel for trade manufacturing, that's showing a very robust final jump in manufacturing. CPI, as you just reported, look, and this is happening because of tariffs, not in spite of them, as the critics would say, because if there were any tariff inflation, it would show up in the core. It's simply not doing that.
So everything is hitting on all major cylinders. And the best is yet to come. I'll tell you, Maria, when Americans get those rebate checks on tax day, that's going to be the biggest rebate and broad-based in American history in 2026, unless, course, the geopolitics gets in the way, it's shaping up to be beautiful.
And one last thing I would say on this, the media's got to take some responsibility here, and the Democrats. To the extent they keep bashing us, irrespective of the data, that's going to drag down confidence.
It's like, come on, like, see the data, speak the data, be real. Trump economy, perfect. Best year since 98. We'll top that. It's probably one of the best years in modern American economic history, not hyperbole, that's what the data's telling us.
BARTIROMO: Well, that is great news. And if you say things are even going to be better than now, I believe you, because I remember back in April of last year, it was so-called Liberation Day, when the president talked about his tariffs and there was so much upset about it. I remember a day that the market was down 2000 points. You came on my show and you said the Dow is going to 50,000. And of course it did last week. So congrats on that prediction.
Sorry Peter, but pointing out that the labor market shows structural weakness despite one decent monthly report, that inflation is still high, and that Trump's tariffs are paid by Americans and causing prices to rise isn't "dragging down confidence." It's discussing reality. And the stock market rising doesn't mean things are great for everyone.
