Navarro Melts Down, Revealing Deep Worries About Trump’s 2024 Strategy

Donald Trump’s former senior adviser Peter Navarro has doubled down on his pleas to the former president, begging him to stop making superficial attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Navarro, who previously served a four-month prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena in the January 6 investigation, spoke about Trump’s bad strategy Monday while guest hosting the War Room podcast, which is normally captained by Steve Bannon. But Bannon is currently serving his own four-month prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena in the January 6 investigation.

“The Trump rally 1.0 has always been a fast-moving feast,” Navarro explained, a generous characterization of Trump’s falsehood-filled, meandering public speaking gigs.

“Trump doesn’t need feast now, he needs votes, and the current rally formula is simply not sufficiently focused on the very stark policy differences—policy differences—between him and Kamala Harris that will swing voters in key battleground states,” Navarro said. “Instead, when Trump attacks Harris personally rather than on policy, Harris’s support among swing voters rises, particularly among women. It’s just a fact of life, right now.”

Amid Harris’s increase in the polls, and apparently groundswell of support, Trump has appeared to lean into making personal attacks against the vice president. He’s tried out several lame nicknames, accused her of deciding to become Black, and falsely claimed that her campaign used A.I. to create the appearance of a massive crowd.

Navarro’s message for Trump to get serious about opposing Harris was echoed in statements from former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who appeared on Fox News Monday.

“You’ve got to make this race not on personalities,” McCarthy said. “Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as attorney general on crime. Question what did she do when she was supposed to take care of the border as the czar. Question that they brought inflation [down], and she was the tie-breaking vote when it came to inflation, when it came to IRS agents.”

McCarthy called Harris the “perfect person to run against.”

“You thought John Kerry was a flip-flopper? She has the biggest flip-flop, with the most extreme positions, and you’ve got a short time to do it. So, don’t sit back, get out there, and start making the case, and use her own words to do it,” McCarthy said.