Fake economist and ex-convict: the guru behind Trump's tariffs

Since US President Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term this January, some of the figures orbiting around him have also been at the center of controversy. With the new tariff policy that is shaking markets around the world, one name has gained prominence: that of Peter Navarro, advisor to the US president and one of the gurus behind the tariffs Trump proclaims.

Navarro (Massachusetts, 1949) is no stranger to the halls of the White House. He was already part of Donald Trump's first administration, where he arrived, according to several US media outlets, thanks to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a similarly controversial figure. Kushner's assignment was to find an economic advisor who could support a trade confrontation with China. To do so, Kushner searched the economics library and finally came across Death by China: Confronting the dragon – In global call to action[Death for China: Confronting the Dragon] – A Call to Global Action, written by economist Peter Navarro. It was a thesis on the need to declare a trade war on China, and that's how this previously little-known economist found his way into the White House.

But controversy soon arose. In his academic articles, Navarro cited a self-proclaimed economist named Ron Vara, who appears in half a dozen of Navarro's books and to whom he attributed phrases like "Only the Chinese can turn a leather sofa into an acid bath, a baby crib into a lethal weapon, and a cell phone battery into a meter." But the deception was soon exposed: The New York Times revealed in 2019 that Ron Vara is a fictional character and is, in fact, an anagram of the name of its creator, Peter Navarro.

In the face of the scandal, Navarro justified himself by calling the matter a "joke" and asserting that "at no time did he use him as a real source." However, some publishing houses were forced to correct the error, as other economists had cited Vara in their writings. But none of this has been a deterrent for Trump, who has kept Navarro as his economic right-hand man. Indeed, it is well known that Donald Trump himself invented his own fictional spokesperson, John Barron, in the 1980s.

Picapela with Musk

This week Navarro has been in the spotlight for her involvement with the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and one of Trump's main supporters in this term. According to the Washington Post This weekend, Musk personally appealed to Trump to ask him to withdraw his tariff plan.

In fact, Musk's discomfort with this hostile tariff policy is no secret. The Tesla founder even called Peter Navarro a "moron" after the latter accused him of profiting from his Tesla cars. Navarro had pointed out that Musk is a "car assembler" because he produces outside the US, mainly in Asia, which goes against the Trump administration's advocacy of domestic production. "What I think is important to understand about Elon is that he sells vehicles. That's what he does," Navarro told the network.Fox News.

"Navarro is a real idiot. What he's saying is patently false. Tesla has the largest number of cars manufactured in the United States. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks," the businessman retorted. This fact opens, beyond the global disorder caused by Trump's tariffs, a new chapter of discomfort within the administration.

A conviction

Beyond his theses and the invented economist, Peter Navarro was also cannon fodder in the courts. In 2024, Trump's current advisor will be sentenced to four months in prison for two counts of contempt of Congress, stemming from his refusal to comply with the orders of the Congressional committee investigating the attack on the Capitol of the State Units on January 6, 2021. Amb tot, so good point it will be alliberat, Donald Trump will return to triar as an assessor for the campaign and, subsequently, for his government.