The cast of people that President-elect Donald J. Trump selected to fill out his economic team in recent weeks was viewed by many as a surprisingly conventional group, raising hope on Wall Street and beyond that Mr. Trump might not actually bludgeon allies and adversaries alike with tariffs.
But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump made clear that he remains a “Tariff Man” at heart when he tapped Peter Navarro, a China hawk and ardent proponent of steep import duties, to be his senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. The role will give Mr. Navarro, 75, a broad mandate to enact Mr. Trump’s protectionist trade agenda and will ensure that there is a strong voice making the case for tariffs in White House policy debates.
Mr. Navarro was a trade adviser during Mr. Trump’s first term, but he also assumed other responsibilities that included efforts cracking down on counterfeit goods being sold online and streamlining distribution of health equipment during the pandemic. In an administration that was notable for its turnover, Mr. Navarro proved to be a survivor and one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal aides.
Trump’s “Tough Guy” on China
A Harvard-trained economist, Mr. Navarro was once a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully to be mayor of San Diego and spoke at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
Mr. Navarro’s travels in Asia early in his career convinced him that China was engaging in predatory economic practices and led to him publishing a series of anti-China screeds, including The Coming China Wars and Death by China, which Mr. Trump listed in 2011 as one of his favorite books about China.
Mr. Navarro ended up advising Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, and Mr. Trump often referred to him as “my tough guy on China,” relishing the fact that Mr. Navarro’s presence in policy meetings demonstrated his seriousness about forcing economic concessions from China.
A thorn in the side of Wall Street
In choosing Scott Bessent to be Treasury secretary and Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary, Mr. Trump put the top economic roles in his administration in the hands of billionaires who hail from Wall Street. The addition of Mr. Navarro to his economic team will ensure that Mr. Trump’s populist promises will have a voice in his White House.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Navarro regularly sparred with Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury secretary, and Gary Cohn, who served as director of the National Economic Council. In a recent interview, Mr. Navarro recalled that, in a heated Oval Office argument, Mr. Cohn “lifted his leg on me,” making a gesture like a dog at a fire hydrant.
Ahead of the election, Mr. Navarro said that he hoped that there would be minimal influence from Wall Street veterans on Mr. Trump’s economic team and made the case that Mr. Trump should swiftly enact tariffs on China and other countries rather than dangling them for negotiating purposes.
A loyalist to the end and beyond
After Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election, Mr. Navarro shifted his attention from trade and the economy and started focusing on election interference. He became a fierce defender of Mr. Trump’s view, which lacked evidence, that the election was “rigged.”
Along with Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to Mr. Trump, Mr. Navarro devised a plan known as the Green Bay Sweep. Under the strategy, they would try to delay certification of the election by persuading Republican lawmakers to repeatedly challenge the results in various swing states and apply pressure on former Vice President Mike Pence to discredit the outcome. He also cast doubt on the results of the race, compiling instances of purported irregularities and issuing a three-part report claiming election fraud as part of what he described as an “immaculate deception.”
When a House committee sought documents and testimony from Mr. Navarro about his efforts to overturn the election, he rebuffed them, citing “executive privilege.” In January, he was sentenced to serve four months in prison for stonewalling Congress.
The alter-ego of “Ron Vara”
Before serving in Mr. Trump’s White House, Mr. Navarro was a business professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of more than a dozen books.
In 2019, it emerged that Mr. Navarro sometimes took creative license in his writings.
More than a dozen times in five of Mr. Navarro’s books, he quoted an imaginary person named Ron Vara who would dispense musing such as “You’ve got to be nuts to eat Chinese food” and “Only the Chinese can turn a leather sofa into an acid bath, a baby crib into a lethal weapon and a cellphone battery into heart-piercing shrapnel.”
The name turned out to be an anagram of Mr. Navarro’s surname and he described it as a “Hitchcockian writing device” that became an inside joke with himself. Asked about Ron Vara at the time, Mr. Navarro quipped, “As Ron Vara might say, ‘Lighten up and have fun reading the books.”
The post Trump’s Trade Adviser Pick, a China Hawk, Was Jailed Over Jan. 6. appeared first on New York Times.
