Amid all the fretting about what diktats or foreign wars Miller, Bannon and Flynn might be concocting, one figure only intermittently flickers into public consciousness: Peter Navarro, the head of Trump?s National Trade Council. But it would be a costly mistake to short sell his influence. He sports some establishment credentials?most notably, a Harvard Ph.D. in economics?but his views are quite radical. He may, in fact, be the loopiest member of Trump?s retinue.
He has a long and colorful history of China-bashing (just check out his bizarre scaremongering documentaries), which makes Chinese officials nervous. He seems to think that every one of Chinese economic successes comes at U.S. expense.
He?s a zero-sum economist, who, like Trump, believes that every item not made in the U.S. represents the theft of an American job.
Particularly disturbing is Navarro?s fearmongering about war with Beijing. China?s aspirations are so insatiable, he claims, that eventually there will be a clash over ?our most basic of all needs?bread, water, and air.
To counter the manifold economic and military threats the United States faces, Navarro recommends a sweeping revision of U.S. foreign policy. He wants high tariffs, the repudiation of trade pacts and, above all, a massive military buildup against China.
The hysterical economic warnings, the scary prescriptions and the self-defeating proposals would simply be fanciful nonsense if Navarro weren?t whispering in the ear of the most powerful man in the world. The fact that he is makes them dangerous.
