Trump's top trade advisers appear to be on wildly different pages as the China trade war hits a critical stretch

pulse

November 13, 2018 10:22 PM

President Donald Trump's trade team is still fractured as key talks with China about the trade war and possible auto tariffs loom.

Heading into a high-stakes bilateral discussion between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the US administration is missing a concrete, unified strategy to try to end the trade war while also extracting concessions from the Chinese.

Trump and Xi are set to meet in two weeks at the G20 summit in Argentina to try and strike a deal to lower tariffs on roughly $360 billion worth of goods flowing between the two countries. But two of Trump's top trade advisers appear to be in different frames of mind about a potential deal.

On Tuesday, Larry Kudlow, Trump's top economic adviser, criticized Peter Navarro, Trump's ultra-protectionist trade adviser, during an appearance on CNBC. Kudlow took issue with Navarro's comments that

Asked about the comments, Kudlow offered a dismissal of his coworker's words.