WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Peter Navarro will return to the White House as his top trade and manufacturing adviser — after the China hawk served a four-month prison sentence this year for resisting a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“I am pleased to announce that Peter Navarro, a man who was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it, will serve as my Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing,” Trump, 78, said in a statement.
The job title is slightly different from Navarro’s position in Trump’s first term as director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, but he’s likely to play a similar role influencing tariff and trade-deal policies with the goal of improving American business competitiveness.
Navarro, 75, was released from prison in July after serving his sentence, which he decried as unfair, arguing that he was willing to cooperate with the Democrat-led committee but only if it was clear that Trump would not assert executive privilege over documents and testimony.
The trade adviser blasted the FBI in June 2022 for arresting him, saying federal agents “put me in leg irons” and locked him in a cell once occupied by would-be Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr.
“Who are these people? This is not America,” Navarro said during his initial appearance in federal court. “I was a distinguished public servant for four years!”
Navarro described the House panel as a “sham committee” and blasted prosecutors as “despicable.”
“I reached out to the Justice Department. I offered them a possible way forward,” Navarro told reporters at the time. “They responded with effectively the same kind of thing as you see in [former Soviet Union dictator Joseph] Stalin’s Russia or the Chinese Communist Party.”
Trump hailed his stalwart ally in announcing his return to the West Wing.
“During my First Term, few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules, Buy American, Hire American,” Trump said.
“He helped me renegotiate unfair Trade Deals like NAFTA and the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), and moved every one of my Tariff and Trade actions FAST. The Senior Counselor position leverages Peter’s broad range of White House experience, while harnessing his extensive Policy analytic and Media skills.”
Trump added that Navarro’s “mission will be to help successfully advance and communicate the Trump Manufacturing, Tariff, and Trade Agendas.”
“Peter is not just a superb, Harvard-trained Economist, he is a noted author of more than a dozen bestselling books on strategic business management and unfair Trade,” the once and future president went on.
“He did a superb job for the American People in my First Term. Peter will do even better as Senior Counselor to protect American Workers, and truly Make American Manufacturing Great Again.”
Trump made a number of other appointment announcements Wednesday as he prepares to reenter the White House on Jan. 20.
Trump picked Paul Atkins as his designee to be chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission, Monica Crowley to be assistant secretary of state and chief of protocol, David Warrington to be counsel to the president, Adam Boehler to be hostage affairs envoy, Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator and Daniel Driscoll to be secretary of the Army.
