Trump names staunch loyalist, trade hardliner as senior advisor

New York, Dec 5: US President-Elect Donald Trump has named as his top advisor on trade Peter Navarro, who defied a then-Democratic Party-led Congress and went to prison rather than cooperate in its inquiry into the riots that shook the Capitol.

Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday that in his first administration, "few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules, Buy American, Hire American."

As his Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing, he said Navarro would work to "protect American Workers and truly Make American Manufacturing Great Again."

About his imprisonment, Trump said that he "was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it."

The House of Representatives Special Committee investigating the January 6 riots ordered him to appear in person and hand over documents.

He was convicted of contempt of Congress and spent four months in jail for refusing to comply.

The riots followed a rally at which Trump had claimed he was the winner of the 2020 election and the election was stolen.

Navarro joins another hardliner, Jamieson Greer, who was named US International Trade Representative (USITR) by Trump.

Trump said that Greer had helped "in imposing tariffs on China and others to combat unfair trade practices" during the first term.

Navarro is a hawk on China and published a book, 'Death by China: Confronting the Dragon - A Global Call to Action', warning about Beijing's goal of world domination through predatory trade practices.

He is an advocate for high tariffs to help rekindle US manufacturing beaten down by imports, mainly from China, and he stood by Trump as he hiked tariffs on many products from China.

Navarro distinguished himself during the Covid pandemic, warned about it and then helped the US overcome the global supply chain hurdles in facing it.

He was one of the first senior officials to sound an alarm about the Covid pandemic, warning in a January 2021 memo that it "would leave Americans defenceless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil" and cost trillions of dollars.

He made his mark when Trump put him in charge of using the Defence Production Act to ramp up the production of materials needed to fight the pandemic, notably making the car company GM turn to make ventilators for patients.

When he served as an Assistant to the President and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Trump said, "he helped me renegotiate unfair Trade Deals like NAFTA and the Korea-UD Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), and moved every one of my Tariff and Trade actions FAST."

Trump trashed the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and replaced it with a new treaty that Trump considered more favourable to the US.

He also renegotiated the Korean agreement.

Navarro, who has an economics PhD from Harvard and has been a professor at a California university, is very articulate, and Trump, noting his "extensive Policy analytic and Media skills," said that "his mission will be to help successfully advance and communicate the Trump Manufacturing, Tariff, and Trade Agendas."