Peter Navarro He is not another advisor in the environment of Donald Trump. It is his man of trust in commercial matters, the Intellectual author of the tariffs who unleashed the economic war with China in their first mandate and the ideologist of the “reciprocity” policy That now, with Trump again in the presidency, he returns more force than ever.
With a confrontational style, Navarro became famous for his intransigent position against the Asian giant, whom accuses of “killing” the United States with unfair practices. Its influence is perceived in the recent application of tariffs of up to 125% to imported products from China, a measure that shook global markets and further stress the bilateral relationship.
The obsession with China and its tariff crusade
Author of books like Death by China and the next Chinese warsNavarro has been maintaining the American commercial deficit with Beijing for decades is the root of many of the country’s economic evils. It considers that China manipulates its currency, Subsidia strategic industries and allows working conditions that would be unacceptable in the US, thus generating unfair competition that destroys industrial jobs.
During Trump’s first government, between 2017 and 2021, Navarro directed the Office of Commercial and Manufacturing Policy of the White House, an agency created especially for him. From there he promoted a battery of tariffs that included technological, textile and industrial machinery products. Now, in Trump’s second mandate, that policy is deepened with even more aggressive measures.
According to Bloomberg, Navarro had proposed 25% general tariffs for all countries with which the US maintains commercial deficits. Finally, Trump announced a 10% universal tariff – except for China, which faces much greater punishment for adopting retaliatory measures – and a moratorium of 90 days before applying new rates.
Elon Musk’s fierce criticism
In the middle of the new commercial measures package, one of the most resonant clashes occurred with Elon MuskCEO of Tesla and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), the body that seeks to reduce the size of the State. Musk described Navarro as “A darker idiot than a sack of bricks”in reference to its insistence on an extreme tariff policy. Then, he apologized … with the bricks.
The crossing exposed a crack in the hard nucleus of Trumpism. Musk accuses Navarro of putting the automotive industry at risk and punishing US companies that import components to make products in the country. Navarro rebuilt that Tesla It is just a “car assembly” that defends its own interests and not those of the national industry.
The tension between the two is a symptom of internal disputes within Trump’s economic team. While Musk represents a more pragmatic vision and oriented to the free market, Navarro embodies the protectionist and nationalist wing, which gained ground with the return of the former president to power.
Of democratic academic to martyr Trumpist
Peter Navarro is 75 years old, he is a Doctor of Economics for Harvard and Professor Emeritus from the University of California, Irvine. In the beginning, he was a free trade defender and even presented himself as a Democratic candidate in local elections in California, without success. But his vision changed with the globalization and industrial ascent of China.
His link with Trump began in 2016, when Jared Kushner, son -in -law of the then candidate, read the book Death by China And he contacted him. Since then, he became one of his closest advisors. That loyalty had a price: in 2024, Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt, refusing to collaborate with the Congress investigation into the assault on the Capitol of January 6, 2021.
Far from departing from public life, Navarro left prison to participate in the Republican Convention, shortly after the attempted murder against Trump. There, he joked that the Maga motto (Make America Great Again) had been tattooed and presented himself as a martyr of the cause. “They wanted me to betray Donald J. Trump to save my skin, and I refused,” he said before a crowd.
An influence without counterweights
Unlike Trump’s first government, where protectionist figures and pro -free market lived, today the balance is clearly inclined in favor of the hard wing that Navarro leads. The most orthodox economists accuse him of sustaining theories without empirical evidence, and of putting the global economy at risk due to an ideological and simplified vision of international trade.
But its weight in the new White House is undeniable. Navarro not only occupied a key role, but is the main reference of the Trumpist economic strategy for the next few years. His ideas are no longer marginal: they are official policy.
With tariffs in full validity and tensions with increasing China, the “tsar of protectionism” returned to power, willing to bring its commercial crusade to the last consequences. And this time, with less internal opponents, more presidential support and a global economy that trembles at its decisions.
Source: Ambito
