At a fiery White House meeting, a Civil War Over Trade erupted with Navarro taking it on the chin.

A civil war has broken out within the White House over trade, leading to what one official called "a fiery meeting" in the Oval Office pitting economic nationalists close to Donald Trump against pro-trade moderates from Wall Street.

According to more than half a dozen people inside the White House or dealing with it, the bitter fight has set a hardline group including senior adviser Steve Bannon and Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro against a faction led by Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive who leads Mr. Trump's National Economic Council.

At the center of the debate is Mr. Navarro, a firebrand economist who has angered Berlin and other European allies by accusing Germany of exploiting a "grossly undervalued" euro and calling for bilateral discussions with Angela Merkel's government over ways to reduce the US trade deficit with Europe's most powerful economy.