CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins roasted Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro over the answer Navarro gave on why the president singled out India to impose additional tariff as India buys Russian oil while China also does the same. Navarro gave an answer and then said he gave a “really good answer”, but back in the studio, Collins asked former ambassador John Bolton, Trump’s NSA between 2018-2019, whether Navarro actually gave a good answer. “China buys more Russian oil than India does, and they have not been targeted for that. So why is India having its tariffs doubled?” Collins asked Navarro. “As the boss says, let’s see what happens. Keep in mind that we have over 50 percent tariffs on China already,” Navarro said. Collins then countered Navarro and said China’s tariff could go up higher as a punishment for buying Russian oil going beyond the existing 50 per cent tariff. “So we don’t want to get to the point where we actually hurt ourselves,” Navarro said, patting himself on his back for giving a good question. “And I think I’ve given a really good answer to that. We’ve got tariffs 50 percent — we already have high tariffs on China. So, I take your point. President certainly will be working with China on that issue,” Navarro said. Collins played the video and asked Bolton whether Navarro’s answer was really good. “That shows exactly what I think could be the worst outcome for the United States, that India has reacted very negatively, as you might expect, to these tariffs related to Russian oil purchases, in part because they see that China has not been tariffed,” Bolton said.“And Trump seems to be, in the minds of many China experts, setting up to treat China more leniently than he has treated India, thus putting in jeopardy decades of American effort, to bring India away from Russia, to bring India away from China, to join us in trying to push back on Chinese efforts, to gain hegemony along its long Indo-Pacific perimeter.”“And the irony here is that while the secondary tariffs against India are intended to hurt Russia, it could push India back closer to Russia, and ironically closer to China, perhaps negotiating together, against the US tariff efforts,” Bolton said.
