US President Donald Trump’s recently-announced reciprocal tariffs alarmed markets and threatened to disrupt international trade. Donald Trump has now paused the implementation of tariffs for the next 90 days.
But were the tariffs a result of a ‘fake expert’? Many claim that his anti-China trade policies were based on the theories of Ron Vara, a fake economist. Vara is a fictional character invented by Peter Navarro, the White House’s Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing. According to US journalist Rachel Maddow, Navarro frequently quotes Ron Vara in his books and op-eds.
The trouble is, there is no ‘Ron Vara’ and the name is simply an anagram of ‘Navarro.’ In her recent MSNBC show, Maddow claimed that Trump came up with the tariff idea following the spread of a “fake memo from a fake person with a fake email address.”
The memo in question was created by author and economist Peter Navarro — a known China hawk. He began working with Trump after the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner stumbled upon Navarro’s book Death by China and asked him to serve as an economic adviser for the 2016 campaign. She added that Navarro often referenced the work of Ron Vara in his several books.
“At one point, Ron Vara wrote in the memo that Trump could, quote, ‘Ride the tariffs to victory’,” Maddow said, adding that the economics professor is a “made-up person.” “He is a fictional person. Peter Navarro invented Ron Vara as his expert source, so he could quote this expert source over and over and over again in his crackpot books,” she added.
According to The New York Times, Navarro is known as “Rasputin-like China hawk” who keeps bringing up anti-China ideas. He has quoted Vara in many of his books, going back as far as 2001. “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,” Vara is quoted as saying, according to NPR.
In 2019, it was found that he falsified one of the individuals (Vara) he referenced in a book. Navarro also confirmed the fabrication, referring to it as a “whimsical device and pen name” he uses for “entertainment value.” Co-author of Death By ChinaGreg Autry, also admitted that Navarro created the character.
“It’s refreshing that somebody finally figured out an inside joke that has been hiding in plain sight for years,” he wrote in an email, according to NPR.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently called Navarro a “moron” on social media, This remark came in response to a CNBC interview with Navarro, where he discussed Tesla’s position as a “car assembler” rather than a car manufacturer.
“In many cases, if you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets, which in the EV case are the batteries, come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan. The difference is, in our thinking and Elon’s on this, is that we want the tyres made in Akron,” Navarro said. “We want the transmissions made in Indianapolis. We want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw. And we want the cars manufactured here,” he continued.
The comments came as Trump proposed extensive tariffs on a number of countries, sparking market turbulence and potentially increasing automobile prices by thousands of dollars.
Replying on X, Musk said Navarro “is truly a moron, What he says here is demonstrably false.” In another derogatory comment, he called Navarro “Peter Retarrdo.” He also claimed that “Tesla has the most American-made cars,” and “Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
“By any definition whatsoever, Tesla is the most vertically integrated auto manufacturer in America with the highest percentage of US content. Navarro should ask the fake expert he invented, Ron Vara,” he wrote.
Musk’s brother, Kimball Musk, urged Trump to fire his senior trade advisor on Tuesday (April 8). In a post on X, he wrote, “@realDonaldTrump Mr President, if Peter Navarro has lied to you about Ron Vara, what else has he lied to you about? Put America first and fire him!”
