A loyal general returns to wage Donald Trump’s trade wars

Last summer, the economist Peter Navarro trained by Harvard was released from a federal prison in Miami in time to fly to Milwaukee and to give a fiery speech on the Republican National Congress.

“The committee of January 6th demanded that I revealed Donald John Trump to save my own skin,” he roared, referring to the congress premium he ignored, which led to a four-month prison sentence due to contempt for the congress.

“I rejected!” The crowd roared.

Navarros Rockstar -Moment illustrates how the former business professor, who has returned to the White House as the senior consultant for President Donald Trump’s commercial and manufacturing policy, had become Maga Royalty.

“There is a clear bonus in this administration,” said a Washington lobbyist. “And there is no doubt, Navarros loyalty to Trump – that’s why he will always have a lot of influence.”

Navarro, an often weakened consultant in Trump’s first administration, was catapulted into the commercial motif catapult and an early suite of tariffs and probes orchestrates that bear the license plates of his special enthusiasm.

This includes the protection of the US steel and aluminum industry from subsidized Chinese metal, tariffs for all Chinese imports and the use of comprehensive “mutual” tariffs to reduce the country’s trade deficit and increase the production.

While in the last administration of Navarro, more free market advisors such as finance minister Steven Mnuchin or Gary Cohn, finance minister Steven Mnuchin, was affected, he faces far less opposition in Trump 2.0.

The people familiar with the inner work of the government say that Navarro is working closely with Howard Lutnick, Trump’s candidate for trading secretary, and Jamieson Greer, the election of the president for sales representatives.

Lutnick, a billionaire Wall Street Financier, has become an unexpected advocate of the tariffs, the people, while Greer, a trade lawyer, have long been a supporter of tariffs and other protectionist commodity measures.

People describe Trump as a trusting Navarro, described him as “my Peter” and allows him to have a broad scope for trading policy.

Navarro is often described as a “trade falcon”, has long been known for its protectionist stripes and hostility to China. In his book from 2011 Death by ChinaHe argued that Beijing had violated global trade rules by using illegal export subsidies and manipulating its currency.

While Trump’s first time in the Oval Office, Navarro was committed internally for the introduction of high tariffs for Chinese imports and urged him to block visas for Chinese students in 2018 – a step that the president leaned.

“He is a guy who basically sees an existential threat to the United States economically, militarily and geopolitically from China,” said a person who has observed him for decades. “He is a guy who focuses very much on it.”

The freewheel -Navarro also has the call for occasional fantasy lies. In 2019 it turned out that he had embedded a fictional version of himself – Ron Vara – in many of his books on commercial and economic policy.

The fictional Vara is cited in its 2006 book The upcoming China wars Saying: “You have to be crazy to eat Chinese food.” In Death by China, Vara is cited with the words: “Only the Chinese can turn a leather sofa into an acid bath, a baby bed into a fatal weapon and a cell phone battery in heartbreaking splinters.”

Hunter Morg, who was a special advisor of Trump during the first administration and worked for Navarro for three years during this time, described his motivation as “a place of love for the forgotten men and women of this country”.

“He understands that a strong trade and industrial policy is the way to dominance,” said tomorrow, now partner of the Lobby -Shop -Ballard partner.

Like Trump, Navarro was not always a loyal soldier of the Republican Party. He made several failed attempts to obtain a political office in California, including in 1992 as an independent candidate for Mayor of San Diego and made an offer in 1996 to win the 49th California congress district.

During his offer of office in 1996, Navarro gave a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention to support Hillary Clinton, in which he promised to support medicar and social security, abortion rights for women and robust environmental rules to protect clean water and clean air.

Almost 20 years later, Navarro fell into the orbit of the Trump campaign, at a time when political experts from the mainstream still doubted his ability to win the White House.

“Many people found the opportunity to transform into a political infrastructure that people never thought of that they would really turn into a real presidential campaign,” said a person who was familiar with these early days.

“At the time, Trump’s message agreed with Navarro’s conviction that the political elites in Washington DC mislead them,” said the person. “It was less ideological and cultural, and it makes sense that he came in at that time.”

Others describe Trump as a “ship” for Navarro as an architect of his own deeply economic beliefs.

“Trump (has). . . In view of the ability to deal with this thing that was a motivating life mission for many decades, ”said one person.