Peter Navarro’s job title says a lot but is less than succinct. Since 20 January 2025, he has been Senior Counsellor to the President of the United States for Trade and Manufacturing, one of two such role-holders (the other being Alina Habba, whose Catholic parents emigrated from Iraq in the 1980s to escape persecution).
Navarro, 75, an ex-economics professor known for his fierce loyalty to US President Donald Trump, is the one making the headlines—it is his tariff designs that have upended the global economic order in recent weeks, escalating a trade war between the US and China, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, to name but a few.
Who is the man who often stood at Trump’s side when signing executive orders or briefing the press? Moreover, is Navarro steering Trump, or is Trump steering Navarro?
A Harvard Democrat
Trump’s trade guru grew up in Florida and Maryland in a working-class family. Raised by his mother, who was a secretary (his father was a musician), Navarro took on several jobs before going to Tufts University on an academic scholarship, graduating in 1972. He then spent three years in the US Peace Corps, serving in Thailand.
In 1979, he got his master’s degree (in public administration) from Harvard, where he then stayed to get his PhD in economics in 1986, working as a researcher at the university’s Centre for Energy and Environmental Policy from 1981-85.
Books and activism
In 2006, Navarro wrote his first book on China, The Coming China Wars, followed by Death by China: Confronting the Dragon in 2011 (co-authored with Greg Autry) and Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World in 2015. Death by China was later adapted into a documentary narrated by Martin Sheen.
The film caught the attention of businessman Donald Trump, who endorsed it, saying: “I urge you to watch it.” But in 2019, Navarro admitted that he had fabricated a fictional character named Ron Vara in the book, using him to present (fictitious) quotes that negatively portrayed Chinese products.
Navarro has authored three books about Trump, his presidency, and political strategies. These cover the pandemic (and Trump's handling of it), Joe Biden's 2020 election win, and the 'Make America Great Again' (MAGA) agenda. Two of the three books could be said to outline a vision for Trump's second presidential term.
In San Diego, Navarro fought real estate developers whom he saw as greedy, environment-destroyers threatening the city's coastal character, founding an organisation against urban transformation. From this activism, he sought political office, running for the Democrats five times, losing each time.
For the next two decades, he taught at universities in California as a professor of economics and public policy, winning teaching awards for his MBA courses. Early on, there were clues as to his thinking, beginning with his first published book The Policy Game—a lengthy critique of the special interests that were “robbing America”.
He strongly opposed protectionist policies, arguing that tariffs harmed consumers, threatened global stability, and could trigger a “downward spiral that would be impossible to stop for the entire global economy”. He also advocated more support for those who lost their jobs due to trade and foreign competition.
