Trump’s ‘commercial warrior’

Donald Trump’s second administration business policy is transforming the international economic system. It is known that even when it was just a real estate tycoon, Trump has always demonstrated sympathy for protectionist ideas. The trade war with China in its first term was the first proof that it was willing to put them into practice, but it was following the “Liberation Day”, on April 2, that the theme reached other proportions.

For a better understanding of this tariff imbroglio, whose calculation, according to Fareed Zakaria, « is closer to VUU than the economy, » it is important to look at its economic counselors. From this range, Peter Navarro, an economist graduated from Harvard University and author of a vast work in the field of commercial policy. The protection of protectionism has made several public statements about the economic strategy of management, which have been criticized. And the hardest – offensive, even – came from within: Elon Musk, one of Trump’s most influential members in the intimate circle, said Navarro « is darker than a brick bag. » But who is this figure anyway?

Hired by Amazon

According to his official profile, available on the White House website, Navarro concluded his doctorate in economics at Harvard and is « Emeritus Professor of Economics and Public Policies at the University of California, Irvine. » During Trump’s first presidential presidential campaign, he provided advisory services to the Republican candidate, integrating the executive as director of the National Council of Commerce – a position created by Donald Trump after winning the elections against Hillary Clinton. In April 2017, when the creation of the Commercial Policy and Manufacturing Office (OTMP), whose objective, according to the White House, is to defend and serve American workers and national producers, ”Navarro took the highest position of this new American government arm, a position that regained Trump’s return to the Oval Room, even after fulfilling four months in prison, between March and July of last year, for being disregarded. An subpoena of Congress.

But how did Navarro come to Trump’s hard core, being one of his main influences in the area of ​​commercial policy? According to a play by the 2017 Vanity Fair, it was little orthodox. « At one point, during the campaign (2016), when Trump wanted to talk more substantially about China, he gave (Jared) Kushner a summary of his opinions and asked him to do some investigation, » reads the VF article. «Kushner simply went to Amazon, where he was impressed by the title of a book, Death by China, of which Navarro was co-author. He called the cold to Navarro, a well-known commercial deficit hawk, who agreed to join the team as an economic counselor.

Mysterious inspiration

As read in his profile, Navarro « is the author of several books on economics, analysis of financial markets and macroeconomics, including Death by China (…). And it is precisely in the revision of its economic literature that something is caricatured and, by the way, unusual in science. Navarro quotes a specialist twice, of his name Ron Vara. For example, in Death by China, which earned him access to the American executive, where he warns of the threat placed by the Chinese to the United States, attributes the stick two sentences. Problem: Ron stick does not exist. It is simply an anagram of its own nickname, as revealed in an article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2019.

No defense “beyond tariffs”

Going in 2016 and its academic inspirations to 2025 and the “day of release”, Peter Navarro has been a frequent presence in American television channels, naturally interested in interviewing the nickname “Commercial Warrior” or “Tariffs” of the 47th American President.

Last Sunday, in statements to NBC, Navarro assured that « everything is unfolding » as expected « when confronted with the question of Trump announced a breaks in tariffs and decreed some exceptions in the trade war with China. « For decades the world deceives us, » he continued, echoing Trump’s thought. However, some indicators tend to contradict this argument. For example, according to Statist data, US GDP, nominal and real, has been constantly increasing since the end of World War II – the real went from $ 2.5 billion in 1945 to about 22 billion in 2022 – an indicator that reveals that the years of the Liberal International Order were not so harmful.

In addition, when the poorer state’s per capita GDP, Mississippi, ($ 51355) is superior to the world’s most powerful economies – United Kingdom ($ 49464), France ($ 44691) or Japan ($ 33767) – according to the World Bank and Fred, seems to argue that the United States were ‘stole’ or ‘stole’ or ‘ «Deceived» in a world based on economic interdependence. The journalist herself added that « after the announcement of the president’s policies, we watched a drop in markets, the bond market was shaken, consumer confidence fell to the pike and fears of inflation have reached the highest level since 1981. » Still, Navarro guarantees that the US has no « another defense beyond tariffs ».

The schism

The issue of tariffs came to shake the waters of the Musk-Trump relationship. During the lit debates that emerged in the hangover of the “Liberation Day”, the owner of Tesla published a video of Milton Friedman, where he argues in favor of free trade. Already Navarro even said: “In the White House we all know (and the American people too) that Elon is a car manufacturer. But it is not a car manufacturer – it assembles cars. Musk responded with the insult already mentioned at the beginning of the text, and ensured that « by any definition it gives, Tesla is the most vertically integrated car manufacturer in America, with the largest percentage of American content. »