JOHN KELLY/NAFTA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP PEOPLE: “White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has been increasingly sidelined during meetings and cut off from his once-regular access to the Oval Office as chief of staff John Kelly has moved to impose greater order on the West Wing.
But Navarro, a hard-liner on trade who has clashed with his more moderate colleagues, still has an ace up his sleeve when it comes to shaping policy — his close connection with President Donald Trump himself.
Navarro’s reputation as a trade warrior has so ingratiated him with Trump that when other administration officials initially cut Navarro out of trade negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in April, the president insisted that he be by his side, asking ‘Where’s my Peter? Where’s my Peter?’ according to a former White House official.
Now, Navarro’s pull with the president — and Kelly’s ability to contain the trade adviser’s freewheeling style — will be put to the test as Trump makes crucial decisions on everything from the North American Free Trade Agreement and a free trade deal with South Korea to whether to impose stiff tariffs on imports of steel, aluminum and solar panels…
Trump’s more moderate advisers have succeeded repeatedly in persuading the president to rethink his protectionist instincts.”
-Tara Palmeri, “Kelly’s West Wing crackdown tests trade adviser Navarro’s pull with Trump,” Politico, Sept. 18, 2017 10:53am