Liz Wolfe: Don't Trust the Experts: Make Them Up!

"Paging Ron Vara: If you were, say, a White House trade adviser who had been part of crafting the tariff plan that a) relied on a ChatGPT-based formula that makes no sense and levied tariffs on islands full of penguins, b) tanked the global economy, and c) was, so far, shockingly unpopular, wouldn't you want to put it all on someone else and have experts reaffirm your credibility?

Conveniently, the aforementioned Peter Navarro has his China hawk alter ego, Ron Vara. (Vara's writing, from 2011: "Only the Chinese can turn a leather sofa into an acid bath, a baby crib into a lethal weapon, and a cellphone battery into heart-piercing shrapnel." Well, OK!) Vara hasn't made an appearance just yet, but he's part of Navarro's rise to prominence.

Truly. I did not make this up. I'm not sure I even could.

Navarro's books contain repeated references to a man named Ron Vara, and in 2019 he co-authored a memo—advocating for tariffs—using that alter ego.

"Vara is a military veteran and Harvard-trained economist who made seven figures in the stock market by investing in companies that do well during international crises," in Navarro's telling, reported Tom Bartlett at The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2019. This has, per Navarro's books, earned him the nickname "Dark Prince of Disaster."

Why would Vara be valuable to Navarro? Well, Navarro is a bit of a Johnny-come-lately to China hawkdom and expertise, having only first traveled there in 2018 and having no Mandarin knowledge or deep background; Vara's expertise—though made up—is something Navarro can rest on to back up his arguments. Or, perhaps Navarro uses Vara as a sort of imaginary friend, someone to consult with during long nights in his office. I get it, I have a toddler, we do lots of imaginary friends. I just didn't know they were being used to lend credibility to our nation's economic policy.

Navarro told The Chronicle of Higher Education that Vara was a "whimsical device and pen name I've used throughout the years for opinions and purely entertainment value, not as a source of fact," which is…not true (just as his there-will-be-no-recession talking point earlier this week is not likely to be true, either). He also apparently compared the invented character to "Alfred Hitchcock appearing briefly in cameo in his movies." (Some of Navarro's coauthors through the years, like Glenn Hubbard, former dean of Columbia University's business school, were not aware that Vara was made up, for what it's worth, and were not happy with this revelation... 

Source:Reason Magazine with a look at White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro. Mr. Navarro would be very smart to stay away from Senator Thom Tillis right now. Unless he hates breathing.

From Reason Magazine

The New Democrat talked about Peter Navarro, as well as Elon Musk on Tuesday: 

"The question is when will and who will the voters blame for Trumpenomics. And to go back to Senator Tillis's question: "Whose Throat Do I Get To Choke If Tariff Approach Fails?" I believe you are going to see long lines of people at political rallies, who would want to choke the hell out of Donald Trump for applying this braindead approach to economics. Except it won't be a hilarious, Hollywood movie scene. It will be real life." 

From The New Democrat

"If you think about it, Elon Musk could've been harder on Peter Navarro than he was and I'll give you a few examples: 

"What does a convicted felon know about economic policy anyway: 

What does he know about prices in this country, other than what food and clothing costs at his prison commissary? 

If Peter Navarro is so smart, how come he got caught, convicted, and landed in prison? Good thing for him, the 2024 RNC started the day he got out of prison, otherwise he would've had to watch it in the prison day room and wonder if he would even survived the experience. 

When has Peter Navarro ever had a job in his life where he wasn't working for Donald Trump? The President probably only hired him because he feels sorry for the poor schmuck, who can't get a good job anywhere else, because he's a convicted felon. And he didn't want to embarrass Navarro by having him take his next order for a Diet Coke, quarter pounder, with fries,  at a local McDonald's." 

(Mr. President, you want fries with that? Yes, Peter. And please keep your voice down so no one here figures out that we know each other.)

Just for the record: I'm not saying that Elon Musk said any of these things about Peter Navarro... publicly...

From The New Democrat

So I guess the answer to Senator Tom Tillis's question: "Whose Throat Do I Get To Choke If Tariff Approach Fails?" would be: Peter Navarro. I guess you say Wall Street investor Ron Vara as well. But Peter Nevarro would be easier for Senator Tillis to find right now. Unless Mr. Navarro found some White House tunnel that not even the Secret Service knows about and is now hiding there. Sort of how he came up with his tariff policy that almost no one seems to believe in. The man seems to be able to find things that no one else can. 

Donald Trump when he was running for President in 2016 said he: "would only hire the best and the brightest as President"

In January of this year, he said he would eliminate DEI "and only hire the best and the brightest". But: 

Pete Hegseth is now Secretary of Defense

Tulsi Gabbard is now Director of National Intelligence

Kash Patel, a man with an enemies list, is now Director of the FBI 

Michael Waltz is National Security Advisor

Both Secretary Hegseth (drunk or sober) and NSA Waltz gave us Signal Gate

Peter Navarro is The White House Trade Advisor, the man who is largely responsible for the Wall Street almost crashing last week, because of President Trump's tariffs. 

So does this mean that President Trump only hires "the best and the brightest from what's available and left to be hired", but he just doesn't share that with anyone publicly? Or, another possibly and I think it's an excellent 1: "the best and the brightest" simply don't want to work for Donald J. Trump? 

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