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How Peter Navarro went from Democrat to inmate to Trump’s tariff guru
The Washington Post ^ | April 26, 2025 10:00 a.m. EDT | Michael Kranish and Jeff Stein

Posted on 04/26/2025 1:49:32 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

The man behind the president’s tumultuous tariff policies has sought for decades to set off the ultimate trade war with China.

One year ago, Peter Navarro sat in a federal prison in Miami, sending messages that he was a martyr for MAGA. He had begged for help paying legal bills that he said would reach $750,000.

Now Navarro has a prime seat in the Oval Office, where he is an architect of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy — butting against the secretaries of treasury and commerce and Elon Musk, who called him a “moron.”

Navarro’s journey to one of the most powerful positions in the White House has been one of spectacular flameouts and surprising comebacks. He tried to launch a similar tariff war in the first Trump administration but lost influence before the inauguration, according to his own account. This time, he vowed it would be different, and the results have been explosive: a trembling stock market, trillions of dollars in losses and the threat of recession.

To Navarro, all is going according to his plan.

“This is unfolding exactly like we thought it would in a dominant scenario,” he said April 13 on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” predicting the Dow Jones Industrial Average would soar.

But critics say that Navarro, 75, has aligned with Trump to enact policies that could set back the United States for years to come, regardless whether the president wins some concessions.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s, said the policy is so “egregiously bad” that it could “wreck the economy.” Zandi said that while economic consensus on anything is rare, in this case, he doubted whether even one out of 100 economists would agree with Navarro’s approach — but Trump does.

“The reason Navarro has such influence is it dovetails with what the...


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: enemieslist; enemyjournalists; freetraitors; jeffstein; markzandi; michaelkranish; waposedition; washingtonpost

1 posted on 04/26/2025 1:49:32 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

A political prisoner for saying there was The Steal.


2 posted on 04/26/2025 1:53:17 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Guess he’ll be leaving the administration now.


3 posted on 04/26/2025 1:55:11 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3 ( I'm Proud To Be An Okie From Muskogee)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Ian Fletcher is the brains behind Trump’s tariffs


4 posted on 04/26/2025 2:04:29 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: ifinnegan

The MAGA king was persecuted, abused, shot at but continued to fight on to the victory. Unwavering MAGA who suffered should be rewarded. It’s time to replace the elite at DOJ, FBI, CIA, DHS, etc with J6 prisoners.


5 posted on 04/26/2025 3:53:37 PM PDT by Choppo
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The man behind the president’s tumultuous tariff policies

A lie in the first sentence.

Trump has been talking about this since the 80’s


6 posted on 04/26/2025 5:58:29 PM PDT by logitech
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