Behind the scenes: According to two sources in the Monday meeting, Navarro had aggressively confronted FDA officials, saying, “You are all Deep State and you need to get on Trump Time.” (That’s the expression Navarro uses to describe the speed that he says Trump demands.)

Sources familiar with the situation said Navarro has been venting at the FDA for weeks at what he perceives as its slowness to approve therapeutics to fight COVID-19 and help the U.S. “bring our medical supply chain home.”…

A third senior administration official said Navarro — a fervent proponent of hydroxychloroquine — remained angry at the FDA for saying the drug didn’t work against COVID-19.

Senior health officials counter that the FDA needs to follow a rigorous process to ensure that the public can trust that they are operating by the book — and by the science, free from political pressure — and that whatever therapeutics and vaccines the FDA authorizes are safe for use.