Peter Navarro Warns Of Severe Coronavirus Effects Despite Telling The Public That It Was ‘Nothing To Worry About’

Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser, publicly assured Americans that they had “nothing to worry about” in regards to the coronavirus. However, he privately warned the Trump administration that the virus could cost the U.S. trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives.

In a January 29th memo to the White House, Navarro wrote that the “increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic” could potentially infect as many as 100 million Americans and kill “as many as 1-2 million souls.” Despite his warnings, Navarro continued to downplay the pandemic in public.

During that same day, Navarro did not mention the virus’s deadly potential when asked about the impact of the coronavirus during an appearance on CNBC.

“Not to jump too quickly to the impact of the coronavirus, but obviously there’s the fear that it’s going to unwind some of the potential benefits of phase one,” CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla said. “(Secretary of Agriculture) Sonny Perdue today said he didn’t know whether it would affect ag commitments. How much are you worried about that unwind, or potential unwind?” Quintanilla asked to which Navarro answered, “Well, we have a really strong leadership with (Health and Human Services) Secretary (Alex) Azar and the CDC. We’re working very carefully and diligently on this, so, well, let’s see how this unfolds. This is not my lane per se, so I’m going to let others come on CNBC and inform that.”

In a statement to CNN in regards to his CNBC appearance, Navarro explained, “A question about agricultural purchase commitments is clearly not my lane.”

Also, in the memo, Navarro urged the White House to declare a travel ban on China. Two days later, the White House imposed travel restrictions on mainland China. However, they declined a ban.

In his second memo on February 23rd, Navarro urged for immediate funding to “minimize economic and social disruption” as a result of the coronavirus spreading.

“Any member of the Task Force who wants to be cautious about appropriating funds for a crisis that could inflict trillions of dollars in economic damage and take millions of lives has come to the wrong administration,” The memo read. However, the very next day, Navarro once again downplayed the crisis, assuring that the coronavirus was “nothing to worry about for the American people.”

On Tuesday, during the White House coronavirus briefing, Trump claimed that he didn’t know about Navarro’s memos until a few days prior and hadn’t taken the time to read it.

“He wrote a memo and he was right and I haven’t seen the memo. I will see it later on, after this. But it didn’t matter whether I saw or not, because I acted on my own. I guess I had the same instincts as Peter.” Trump said.