One of President Trump’s most senior former economic advisers says he left the White House early due to the combined effects of suffering COVID-19 and frustration at policy disputes at the heart of the administration.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Tomas Philipson, who was acting chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers until announcing his departure last month, said his three-year leave of absence from the University of Chicago was drawing to a close, but he hastened his exit in part because of efforts by trade adviser Peter Navarro to sideline his team.
He said their disputes pitted CEA’s more free market analysis against Navarro’s protectionist instincts over questions such as whether to bring back medical supply chains from China.
“Peter, in general, a lot of times, he couldn’t carry the argument in the Oval, so he would always kind of try to sneak around the process and make the process such that it favored him,” said Philipson, accusing Navarro of trying to present his case to the president alone.
“Very few other principals did that, but he did it. And that was frustrating, and we, therefore, clashed with him quite a bit at CEA.”
Philipson left at the end of June. Many observers expressed surprise that he was leaving with the country mired in an economic crisis of historic proportions and so soon after the departure of Kevin Hassett, his predecessor as CEA chairman who returned to advise the president on the coronavirus response.
But Philipson said he always planned to leave in August after three years in the White House. He brought things forward after falling ill.
“I didn’t want to sit out another couple of weeks and then not be productive and then leave in August,” he added. “It was time to go when I got COVID anyway.”
He said he suffered only mild symptoms and one day of fever.
The CEA serves as a think tank inside the White House, weighing costs and benefits of policy proposals. Several of its previous heads have gone on to lead the Federal Reserve, including Alan Greenspan, Janet Yellen, and Ben Bernanke.
Under Philipson, a healthcare economist, it last year warned that a pandemic could kill half a million people in the United States and devastate the economy. However, like many officials, he initially played down the threat from the coronavirus, saying in February: “I don’t think corona is as big a threat as people make it out to be.”
He likened Trump’s policy process to a court, with two sides thrashing out their arguments before the president in the Oval Office.
“The court wants the plaintiff and the defendant to hammer it out competitively, taking on each other’s arguments, and then, that gets you the best information,” he said.
In general, the CEA tended to pursue a more free market approach than others in the president’s orbit, he said, adding that he felt he was winning arguments in his first nine months as chairman.
“I think the president has very good economic instincts,” he said.
When Navarro drafted an executive order requiring federal agencies to purchase U.S.-made medical products, reducing reliance on China in times of crisis, Philipson argued for stockpiling instead.
Bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., he said, would raise prices — essentially the cost of insuring the country against future shocks, such as another pandemic or the actions of an adversary.
Philipson instead argued that with China subsidizing its manufacturers, the U.S. could fill stockpiles of personal protective equipment, for example, while Chinese taxpayers footed part of the bill.
Navarro’s executive order has been stalled since April.
Philipson said the result was attempts to sideline him.
“I don’t think it’s unique to the White House that either side tries to exclude other sides from meetings, meetings with the president,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s unique to the Trump administration. But I got very frustrated when that started happening by people who were on the losing side of the argument that CEA won.”
“This was starting to bother me, and then I got COVID on top of that.”
Navarro did not respond to requests for comment.
