Peter Navarro’s bullish personality is rubbing some Trump allies the wrong way as he takes center stage in the battle over tariffs and butts heads with other top officials in the White House.

Some Republican lawmakers say Navarro’s temperament makes them nervous about where the trade war could take the U.S. economy.

“He’s so crass. His personality is so abrupt and so certain,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said. “If he was a doctor, you’d say he has a bad bedside manner.”

Notably, when President Trump on Wednesday imposed a 125 percent tariff on China and implemented a 90-day pause on other trading partners, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went to speak to reporters about details of the pause — without Navarro.

Divisions within Trump World had already exploded into public view earlier this week when Elon Musk called the Trump trade adviser “dumber than a sack of bricks.”

It’s not the first time Navarro, who was convicted and spent time in prison for contempt charges related to a Trump investigation, has had his issues within the White House. During Trump’s first term, he similarly clashed with Trump aides but managed to outlast it for the full term and return for the second.

Adding to his problems, Navarro isn’t known for having deep relationships in Washington. Multiple Senate Republicans noted they don’t believe Navarro has much of a rapport with many — if any — members in their conference despite his high-level roles over the years.

“I don’t know many people [who] have a relationship with him,” one Senate Republican told The Hill, adding that Navarro gives off a whiff of arrogance that does him no favors with lawmakers and that he is part of a group that does not think about “factors beyond the transaction that are important considerations.”

“There are things beyond economic considerations that drive some of our business relationships with these countries, so I think there’s a general frustration,”........

© The Hill