Peter Navarro

Peter Navarro was Trump’s White House trade advisor, where he said his job was to “provide the underlying analytics that confirm [Trump’s] intuition [on trade]” and asserted that “[Trump’s] intuition is always right in these matters.” Navarro authored the Fair Trade chapter of Project 2025, where he casts the World Trade Organization and China as the main villains. Navarro was also a central figure in the attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and is the first former White House official to be imprisoned for a conviction of contempt of Congress, due to his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

Navarro’s economic theories are considered fringe and his analysis has been criticized for his lack of rigor and peer review: “He doesn’t publish in journals… He doesn’t do research that would meet the scientific standards of that community.” His 2016 tax and trade paper with billionaire Wilbur Ross was derided by critics who said they showed “a complete misunderstanding of international trade.” The Economist noted that Navarro has “oddball views.”

During Navarro’s tenure, the Trump Administration initiated a trade war with China and imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports, ultimately costing the U.S. billions of dollars and an estimated 245,000 American jobs.

In his chapter in Project 2025, Navarro calls for implementing reciprocal trade, a policy that matches U.S. tariffs to those of its trade counterparts, as well as limiting imports of goods from China and restricting investments by both limiting U.S. corporations’ ability to invest in Chinese assets and prohibiting Chinese corporations the Administration deems affiliated with the Chinese Community Party (CCP) from investing in U.S assets.

Navarro was a central figure in the Big Lie. A former Trump White House official revealed that Navarro and right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon were behind the last-ditch coordinated effort by Republicans in Congress to halt certification of the 2020 election results and keep President Donald Trump in power, in a plan dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep.” Navarro has also called the 2020 election the “immaculate deception,” claimed Vice President Pence could overturn the results of the election, and took part in the infamous call where Trump asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to swing Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Trump.

Trump has called Navarro’s jail sentence for defying a subpoena “a disgrace” and claimed “Peter was treated very unfairly, a great patriot.” When asked if he’d pardon Navarro if he were elected again, he suggested clemency would be a “very good idea.” Trump has said when Navarro is out of prison, “we’re going to take care of him,” with a possible reward of a powerful post in a second Trump administration. Donald Trump Jr. has visited Navarro in jail, too.

During the to COVID-19 pandemic, Navarro advocated for the use of hydroxychloroquine, a drug associated with sudden death and increased mortality. Navarro claimed, “If we were allowed under the doctors’ advice to get this stuff to people at the first sign of their symptoms — I guarantee you it would cut the amount of time of the symptoms, reduce the duration of the symptoms and save lives.” He also claimed more Americans would die from the public health lock-down restrictions than COVID-19, but more than 1.1 million Americans died after contracting the virus. Navarro also fueled conspiracy theories alleging that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for almost 40 years, was responsible for the pandemic, asserting, “Fauci is the father of the actual virus. Fauci’s the guy… I call it the Fauci Virus now.”

Note: Individuals included in the “Supply Chain” risk scenario would have decision-making purview over a regulatory space that greatly influences supply chains in key industries (e.g. agriculture, healthcare, technology, consumer goods), or whose influence on domestic or foreign policy could greatly disrupt aspects of supply chains, including shipping and logistics, trade agreements, and labor availability.

This profile has been updated.