Peter Navarro used to be a Democrat. Today he’s the architect of President Trump’s trade war
The “insufferably bigoted, close-minded, and dangerously well-disciplined storm troopers on the religious right,” he wrote in a 1998 memoir, San Diego Confidential, “wield far too much influence at the ballot box.” The GOP was in thrall to “buffoons, sociopaths, and zealots like Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and Ralph Reed.” Its economic policies consisted of “tax schemes to further enrich the rich,” and its leaders could not be trusted “to do anything but trash the environment under the phony banner of economic progress.”
Twenty years ago, Navarro was a liberal economist who admired Hillary Clinton, argued for taxing the rich and had run for office as a Democrat four times. Today he is a top economic adviser to a Republican President. As Donald Trump’s director of trade and industrial policy, Navarro is known for his advocacy of tariffs and opposition to trade deals. It is Navarro who has pushed Trump to wage an escalating trade war that pits the U.S. against not only economic adversaries like China but also allies like Canada and the European Union. He is the most powerful person in Washington on the most volatile issue of Trump’s presidency.
Navarro’s positions put him at odds with most economists, most Republicans and many in the business community. But they are in sync with the President’s long-standing conviction that the U.S. is being ripped off by other countries. “Trump listens to Peter, especially when it comes to China,” says Stephen Moore, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, who frequently advises Trump and who disagrees with the tariff push. It is Navarro who helps translate Trump’s beliefs into action, supplying him with policy direction, affirmation and arguments to help his case. His role is akin to that of Trump’s senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, who has become notorious for pushing Trump toward the restrictionist immigration policies he instinctively favors. Navarro, though less well known, is the Miller of economic policy, the voice in Trump’s
