As markets plummeted Monday, White House aide Peter Navarro insisted fears of a trade war and President Donald Trump's attacks on Amazon were all wrong.

"Everybody needs to relax," Navarro told CNBC. Trump's trade policy is "good for the market," he insisted, adding: "I teach that stuff. I mean, let's remember – if anybody knows what goes wrong with these models, it's the guy who knows how to teach them."

Navarro taught at the University of California-Irvine before coming to the White House. But considering his comments, fellow economists question his grasp of the curriculum.

Navarro made many assertions to my CNBC colleague Kelly Evans. Some – like calling Trump and his trade representative Robert Lighthizer as "the two best negotiators in America" – represent simple flattery of his bosses.

More significant were economic assessments that his colleagues of both parties call simply wrong.

For example: "I don't see any inflation to speak of in this economy, and a lot of the reason is things like the president's tax cuts."

Fellow economists not only see inflation ticking up, they say Trump's tax cuts will increase it further.

"Inflation is low, but accelerating," explained Mark Zandi of Moody's.

The core Consumer Price Index has risen 2.5 percent on an annualized basis over the last six months and 3.1 percent over the last three months.