A fight over President Trump’s trade agenda is playing out in the White House as top advisers spar over how far the United States should go in implementing the America First trade policies the president has promised to enact.
On one side are Peter Navarro — a trade skeptic tapped by Mr. Trump to run the newly created Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy — and Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative leading negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta. On the other side are more moderate voices, including Gary Cohn, head of the National Economic Council; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; Chief of Staff John F. Kelly; and the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster.
Tensions over the direction of White House trade policy have risen in recent weeks with the growing possibility that the nearly 25-year-old Nafta agreement will crumble entirely.