Press Briefing: Peter Navarro Speaks to Reporters Outside the White House - August 11, 2026

Morning.

Morning.

All right. I'm gonna be very focused in my remarks today. I'm referencing, um, an article I did, uh, it appeared, and thank you, uh, the New York Post. Um, the broad, uh, focus here is that, uh, President Trump, um, has tasked people like John Solomon, uh, and Bill, Bill Pulte to dig in and find all of the classified documents and buried documents, uh, that basically bear on two things.

One, the weaponization of the justice system that tried to put President Trump in prison for 700 years. Let us not forget, they tried, uh, to do that. And also, uh, the issues of election integrity. So just, uh, i- -- in the past couple of weeks, uh, we've had, uh, drops on the, on the, uh, White House site, um, on, uh, China's influence on the election, uh, Maricopa County.

Uh, we've had, um, what I'm gonna talk about today, which is an unprecedented release of documents that indicate a coup that was attempted while President Trump was a sitting president. So let me walk you through, um, the New York Post article and these previously unreleased documents. And I'll take you back first to 2016 when the ca- -- the campaign of Hillary Clinton hired Christopher Steele to do a phony dossier, uh, that became, uh, the fodder, uh, for Crossfire Hurricane, which was an investigation of whether, uh, the, the, the President Trump was somehow a captive of, of Putin's Russia, uh, just an absurd kind of thing.

What, what's interesting about that initial, uh, investigation was that it didn't touch the president directly. It focused on peop- on his associates like Carter Page, uh, on George, uh, Papadopoulos, uh, uh, Mike Flynn, uh, and, and so on. What we find this week with these, these documents that are released here, I'm gonna walk you through this, starts on May 16th, 2021. May 16th, 2021. We're five months into the presidency of Donald John Trump.

And the FBI, America's FBI opens an investigation of a sitting president on the question of whether that president is controlled by Putin's Russia, May 16th, 2021. Now, we've heard that anecdotally. What, what we didn't have is the underlying documents, the arguments in the chain of command, and, and we've got that now.

So how did this start? Um, it started with a guy named Bill Priestap, who was the acting director or the assistant director of counterintelligence, um, consulting, uh, with James Baker, the general counsel. Uh, and on, based on that, they issue, uh, a communication on May 16th that has, um, Rod Rosenstein basically opening, and I wanna make sure I get this detail right.

Um, F- -- Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe personally notified Attorney General, Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to open the investigation, okay? Now, what's important is that, that had a predicate that had been established. And what we know about that predicate, which we did not know before, but based on these unre- -- uh, these now declassified documents, that the people involved with that 2016 Crossfire Hurricane operation still going, uh, two people, including FBI agents at the time, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the, the so-called lovers, um, they contributed in somehow information to what Priestap did to lay the predicate.

And one of the things, um, I'm calling for, uh, is, is getting more information on those particular documents because they did not name who, who did that predicate. Now, James Comey is in the mix too. By the time May 16th rolled around, he had been fired. But they used Comey as a witness and used his firing to make an argument that somehow his firing had something to do with obstructing the Russia probe, which was, we, we now know that was, that was totally false as well.

And then if you go one step deeper, uh, at the agent level, you've got a guy named, um, Stephen Somma. He was identified, uh, anonymously as Case Agent 1. He's the guy that totally screwed up the FISA warrants, um, on Carter Page. There's another guy, Joseph Pientka, and then there's a guy who's very special to me in the worst kind of way, Walter Giardino, Walter Giardino.

These are all FBI agents. Giardino was the guy who did that circus arrest of me and my beautiful wife, uh, at Reagan Airport when they could've just, uh, asked me to report down, uh, down to, for the arrest. They made it a big circus. But what's important about Giardino, is that I call him the Forrest Gump, uh, of the weaponized justice system, because he was involved not just in Crossfire Hurricane, but in other operations, uh, like, like Crimson River, Arctic Frost.

Everywhere you see his, his, his, his, uh, his footprints. And so, what we have here is a very clear case of an FBI out of control. Uh, we, we need to look at all of the documents now. They have to be unredacted. That's the next step that has to take place. And, these people need to be held to account because this was nothing more than a attempted coup d'état.

They couldn't stop his election. That was pure election interference prior to the 2016 election, but they didn't quit. They didn't stop. They kept going after him. And as we know, uh, from the Mueller report, there was nothing there. The Russia, Russia, Russia hoax was indeed a hoax. So I want everybody out there in America to understand that that FBI under, under, under the control, uh, of deep state people inside there, uh, did, did totally outside the box irresponsible things that, that in my judgment constitute treason, uh, and an attempted coup.

They need to be held accountable. I'm calling for Senator Chuck Grassley's committee. He's a, he's doing a great job. He needs to get these people, uh, subpoenaed immediately, immediately. And Jim Jordan, who's not doing a good job, I don't know what Jim's doing over at the House Judiciary Committee, but he's certainly not digging deep on the weaponization, uh, or, or the election fraud.

He needs to get off the wrestling mat and get on the thing. So, uh, with that, I'll take, um, uh, a few questions. Please do me a favor. Hang on. Uh, we'll, we'll do this. Okay, be patient. But, um, we're not going, we're not going off on wild stuff, okay? We're gonna talk about this, uh, and just stay, stay with the release of the documents.

So we'll go to you, sir.

Have you spoken to the president about these findings and has he asked you to express --

Uh, executive privilege. Okay. And just as a rule, whenever I talk to the president or not talk to the president, uh, that's not for public, uh, consumption. Uh, I can tell you that if you just simply look at the president's statements, uh, he wants, uh, as Steve Bannon says, "Action, action, action." Um, we're, I don't know, 16 months into this administration, and we, we really haven't seen, um, anybody short of, uh, uh, John, John, uh, Dr. Strangelove Bolton, uh, held to account.

But these people that I'm naming, uh, they need to be held to account, sir. Okay, who's next?

And you wanna see more from Jim Jordan, you said?

Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Jim, Jim, look, Jim didn't lift a hand in my case or Steve's case. He hasn't done anything on the weaponization, um, of the Justice Department. I don't know what he's doing at that committee. He, he's, he's done some things that, that, that arguably, uh, needed to be done, but, but I th- -- there's nothing more important than election integrity.

He's not doing anything on that. There's nothing more important than getting a justice system in this country that serves the people and is not used as a weaponized system to put people in prison, uh, because, uh, you can't. Yes, ma'am.

Can you talk about specific expectation [Inaudible] you and the president for the new Attorney General?

Uh, no. No. I, I was at, I was, um, honored to be at the closed swearing in yesterday, uh, yesterday. I consider Todd Blanche to be one of the finest individuals personally and professionally I ever met. And I can say, uh, that he's in very good hands, uh, and, uh, we're gonna see great things from Todd Blanche.

Next question. Yes, ma'am.

Can I ask a question on the economy, sir?

Uh, yeah. Uh, but let's do this first and then I'll come back to you. Yes, ma'am.

Uh, who specifically do you think Congress should call in for sworn testimony, and what's the questions that still need answers that you think they should prioritize?

Well, I'd, I'd start with, um, with Prestaff, because he's the guy who opened, uh, set out the opening communication. So you can go from Prestaff and back to, uh, the predicate that came from, we don't know who. We need to identify that, but, but Page and Strzok were part of the operation where that came from.

And then, you just run down the line. I mean, I think subpoenas should go out to everybody I named. Every single person, uh, that I named on, on that list. Um, yes, sir.

Is there anything in the newly released documents that shows any sort of political motivation here? Is there any evidence that these folks knew these allegations were, I guess, a hoax in your words, but went ahead with the investigation anywhere? Is there any concrete evidence of that?

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we, we know Page and Strzok, uh, had a pact to make sure that President Donald Trump would never get elected, and they were fruit of the poison tree, right? Remember what I'm telling you, sir? The predicate, you know, in the law, when you lay the predicate, that everything else follows from that.

The predicate came from the Crossfire operation, Crossfire Hurricane operation, which Page and Strzok were, were really important parts of. And I, I think it, yeah, I think it's pretty common knowledge that everybody I mentioned there, um, is, uh, is, is, is hardly a rabid Republican, uh, Trump supporter.

Those people have clear biases, um, that are reflected in a, in a, uh, FBI that through the Biden years really exposed itself. I mean, sir, they, they hid this stuff, okay? They, they sat on this stuff. And, and why? And now we got it out. Okay, what else? Yes, sir.

Uh, I have one question on the economy that I can ask in a moment.

Yeah, yeah, just --

On, on the DOJ, uh, you mentioned the weapon of nation. I know you said you don't wanna hear her name, but do you believe the president should fire US Attorney Jeanine Piro?

-- That, that's always up, it's always up to the president. That's not my, uh, that's not my lane, as I said.

Do you have anything about her staying in as US attorney?

I do, I do not. No. Yes, ma'am.

[Inaudible]

Okay. Well, any, any weaponization?

I guess, what, what ans- -- what ans- -- unanswered questions --

Yeah.

-- Do you still have, you mentioned a, a name being redacted that seems sort of --

Well, okay, let's see. Let's, let's first of all, um, I wanted to know, uh, who laid that predicate, okay? Because they don't identify the person, um, when Priestap does his opening communication, which you can read, just go, go to the whitehouseintegrity.gov, whitehouseintegrity.gov, you can find all this stuff.

You go there and he cites, um, an unnamed person or persons, and we need to know who that is. And, and it, it, it, it, it may well be Page and Strzok. And if it's Page and Strzok, that's even worse, because we know that they had a biased agenda. The, um, inspector general said that right in the inspector general's report.

Okay, so let's shift gears now. We'll, we'll do a little economy. Yes, ma'am?

Yes. I was wondering if you could talk about what kind of briefings and information the president is getting on the economy that's basically leading to him constantly talking about it being a golden age, [Inaudible] economy, a lot of Americans seem to be feeling the pinch, are frustrated --

Well, well, let, let me push back a little bit. I mean, the president, uh, on down, uh, whether it's Scotty, uh, or Kevin, myself, Howard Lutnick, Jameson Greer, we all understand, uh, that we're grappling with, with inflation and problems, uh, that are creating a hardship for Americans. We, we understand that, okay?

But we also understand that the media is doing a very, very poor job in reporting, um, the r- -- really strong efforts we have been making and showing fruits on, um, implementing, uh, basically the Trump-nomic policies, uh, that we did very well in the first term and we're doing even better this t- -- time. So, um, I would urge you all, if you're on the economics beat, to follow my columns in real clear markets.

Uh, every time a major report comes out, I have a column up there. I also had videos on this. But if you simply walk through the, the policies first, if you, if you look at, uh, for example, tax policy, uh, the relevant one here is, uh, is the Big Beautiful Bill, 100% expensing of, uh, building factories here.

And then you look at the second, uh, issue, which is the fair trade, uh, the, the signature there are the tariffs, which are bringing onshore, uh, both dollar investment from foreigners, so they build it here to avoid the tariffs, but also indigenous investment here amongst [Inaudible] and then you've got the deregulation part.

Lee Zeldin's doing a great job. Uh, Russ Vogt over at OMB, um, is doing, uh, a, a great job. And, uh, you cover all four, four of the, uh, the, the issues. And so what we're seeing in the data is, uh, basically on the jobs blue collar front, uh, we're seeing first, uh, uh, the, the money's coming in, we're getting, uh, just an enormous burst of construction jobs.

And when, when you get construction jobs, building factories, uh, you get manufacturing jobs, and we're starting to see that. So about six months ago, the ISM manufacturing index, a zero to 100 diffusion index, as they say, anything over 50 indicates manufacturers expanding. Um, it was below 50 going back to April 22nd, uh, in the Biden years.

And it started going above 50, um, six months ago, with a trend up. And just this last one, finally, the employment component of it went up. So that's like, that's like incredibly good news. Um, if you look at the inflation data, um, one of the brightest spots is, uh, the dramatic fall, um, in housing and rent.

And that's a fifth horseman of prosperity. Our closed secure border policy, um, basically has, and deportations, people are leaving this country. When you had 20 million people coming in over a four-year period across our borders, that's 24 million peo- -- 20 million people you gotta have housing and shelter for.

And not surprisingly, it drove up, uh, rents and housing prices, particularly in the Blue Sanctuary Cities area. We're seeing that come down dramatically. Uh, it's coming down the slowest where we think sanctuary cities. Uh, but that's gonna be a real boon and, and that's gonna keep trending down. And then with respect to other components, um, in the, in the CPI and PPI, uh, we, we take a very micro approach to it. I'll give you a, um, a, a flavor of just two, two things, like beef and scallops, right?

This is how we think. We go, like, one thing at a time, right? So, um, on the scallops front, um, I, I help pen an executive order, uh, which will resolve, uh, this, uh, absurdity. Um, I don't know if you know your geography, but the Georgia's Bank is off the New, New England coast. It's one of the most fertile fishing areas in the world.

And, um, it's split with a border between Canada and the United States. And under the Biden rules, the Canadians could go and harvest scallops on their side of the Georgia's Bank on the northern edge. Um, and they, they get, I think you get the, uh, the, the numbers right. I think it's about seven million pounds or tons.

You can fact check. It's one of those. It's a lot. [Laughs] It's a lot. But what's interesting about it, they were, they were taken from the Georgia's banks just about the amount we import from Canada, driving up our trade deficit. And, uh, you know, and we couldn't take scallops on our side of the Georgia's banks.

That's crazy stuff. So what, what the executive order does is set in motion a process where we're working with, um, the Department of Commerce, um, which is, and, and NOAA, which is in charge of all that, and the New England Fisheries Council and all that. And we're gonna go forward, uh, in a very environmentally, uh, secure way.

And Americans are gonna get millions more scallops and, and prices will go down. That's how we do it. Now, let me, uh, give you the cattle thing, because that's the hard one. Um, we've done really well getting chicken prices down, egg prices down, and all of that. The problem with, with cattle is that we're in a global shortage, uh, of cattle and therefore beef.

So we're, we're fighting against, uh, uh, not just a, a national trend, but a, but a macro global trend. But one of the things that the Biden regime did, um, they actually had a war [Laughs] on, on cattle and, and red meat, okay? And it shows up in actual government documents. And, uh, forgive me, but, uh, it's, it was about farts, uh, cattle farts, uh, to be exact, uh, in the methane that cattles produce when they pass gas.

And so the thinking in Biden land was, uh, let's not eat red meat anymore, so let's kill off the cattle. So let's take away their grazing. And they did that. But the 25 million acres of grazing land really drove up, uh, the cost, uh, of a lot of American ranchers. So they, they did stuff like that. So, um, I personally have worked really hard, um, with Doug Burgum, um, at Interior and, uh, Brooke Rollins, um, at Agriculture, both very fine public service.

We're opening that back up. But we've got a screw worm problem on the southern border. Uh, with Mexico. We're working hard to get a, uh, essentially a fruit fly solution, uh, to that. And the biggest thing, uh, this is, this is really important, uh, we have a, a, a cartel in beef processing. It's a four-firm cartel that controls 85% of all beef processing.

Now, what, what does that mean? It means they're in the middle of the supply chain, so they can screw the ranchers by paying them too little for the cattle, and that suppresses, uh, the cattle herd. They can screw the consumers by charging too much to the supermarkets. And it gets worse because two out of the four firms are Brazilian owned up to their neck with the Chinese.

And what the Brazilian part of the cartel is, as any cartel will do, is they maximize, uh, their prices, uh, globally. And Americans are picking up the tab for that. So we're working hard at the Department of Justice on antitrust. We're working hard, uh, with Brooke Rollins at the sec, uh, at the Department of Agriculture, trying to, um, uh, essentially, uh, uh, bring a whole new breed of small and medium-sized processors into the market to reduce the concentration.

So the point, my point to the American people is we, we, we have your back. Uh, we, we want the kitchen table to be a fun place to be, uh, that you can have, uh, affordable meals. And we really, uh, take this at a granular level, one by one, by one, by one, uh, and we're making progress. All right. Uh, next question.

Do you have a --

Um, on the Lindsay Graham bill that, uh, voters have voted, um, there is a 100% tariff, uh, potential tariff on India. Uh, considering there are negotiations that are going on at this point with India, uh, does that, does this further eliminate the whole India-US relationship and the trade deal?

So, uh, [Laughs] um, I just might as well say this. Um, during the, um, uh, a- -- as the Ukraine-Russia war has, uh, has gone on, I guess six, eight months ago, I think I wrote, wrote an op-ed, uh, in the Financial Times, which absolutely, factually, correctly pointed out that prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, uh, India was not involved in the oil trade, uh, with Russia.

But afterwards, it got heavily involved and, and was selling a lot of, uh, refined products on behalf of Russia, which helped feed the war machine. And, um, that issue has been resolved. Um, maybe I, I had a little bit to do with that, with that op-ed, but I can tell you, I got actually firebombed by, uh, the Indian continent, um, on, uh, on the internet, uh, with all sorts of, of, of nasty little attacks.

Uh, and all I would say to you, don't do that. That's not, uh, that's not how we resolve problems here in America. With respect to your question, uh, the president and, and your prime minister have a very good working relationship. Uh, they are gonna work that out, uh, amongst themselves, and it's not for me and a gaggle to get between that.

All right. Uh, yes, sir.

Mr. Navarro, the president has said many times that he wanted to cut all trade with Spain after several, uh, complaints. Do you know anything about --

No, I don't. Again, I'm not, yeah, I, I, I, when I come out to you, I, I come with very specific things and news that I can talk about. So, um, let's just leave it at that. I think I've given you a lot of things to think about.

On the tariffs, sir?

Uh, what's that?

Quickly on the tariff refund.

Uh, let's go here.

Again, on the --

This, this is the last one. Let me --

Again on the sanctions. If the House passes the sanctions will, would the president be, uh --

Again, you're, you see, you're --

On, on the --

No, you don't do that. They don't, don't ask me those kinds of hypothetical if, what the president's gonna do. I don't do that. Okay? What I do is bring you really good fact-based stuff to write really good stories. So go write some good stories, okay? Take care.

Thank you