The ex-con who repeatedly cited a fake expert asked whether he has more “credibility” than mainstream economists. He might not like the answer.
Peter Navarro wants to know who’s more credible, he and his White House colleagues or mainstream economists.
That’s a conversation I’m eager to have with the guy who, among other things, wrote books quoting “Ron Vara†— a fake person Navarro concocted. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-15T17:30:33.690Z
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-houses-navarro-picks-fight-cant-win-economic-credibility-rcna225229
The White House’s Peter Navarro, Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, appeared on CNBC this week and tried to argue that the president’s trade tariffs should be seen as “tax cuts.”
That was, of course, utterly absurd. In fact, CNBC’s Sara Eisen quickly reminded her guest, “Many economists would say they are tax hikes because ultimately a consumer will pay for some of those increased prices.” Navarro was incredulous.
NAVARRO: Are tariffs price hikes or tax cuts? I say they're tax cuts
EISEN: I mean, many economists would say they are tax hikes because ultimately a consumer will pay for some of those increased prices
NAVARRO: Most economists just don't agree with us. Who has credibility here?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-14T15:32:41.871Z
...This appeared to be a rhetorical question, as if the answer were a foregone conclusion. But if Navarro is actually interested in knowing who has more credibility, there’s a perfectly good answer that’s readily available.....
As longtime readers might recall, in 2016,
then-candidate Trump directed Jared Kushner to help bolster his views on China. The son-in-law went to Amazon.com, was impressed by the title of a book Navarro wrote, and cold-called him. Navarro joined Team Trump as an economic adviser soon after.
In the years that followed,
Navarro became a strange political voice on the Republican’s White House team. In early 2020, for reasons that went unexplained, Trump tapped Navarro to serve on the White House Coronavirus Taskforce, where he earned a reputation for picking strange fights in the Situation Room over hydroxychloroquine.....
Just as notable is the fake expert Navarro concocted named “Ron Vara.” Remember this 2019 report from The New York Times?
Ron Vara has appeared as a cryptic voice of economic wisdom more than a dozen times in five of Mr. Navarro’s 13 books. ... But Ron Vara, it turns out, does not exist. At least not in corporeal form. He is apparently a figment of Mr. Navarro’s imagination — an anagram of Mr. Navarro’s surname that the trade adviser created as a Hitchcockian writing device and stuck with as something of an inside joke with himself.
Yes, the ex-con who repeatedly cited a fake expert asked a national television audience whether he and his colleagues have more “credibility” than the consensus views of mainstream economists. Navarro acted as if the answer were obvious.
Oddly, I think it’s obvious, too.
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