Peter Navarro (born July 15, 1949) is an American economist and professor emeritus at UC Irvine who has served as Donald Trump's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing since January 2025, a role he also held during the first Trump administration. A fierce advocate for protectionist policies, he was a key architect of the trade war with China, earning sanctions from Beijing, and is known for his hardline views that most economists consider fringe. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he clashed publicly with Dr. Anthony Fauci, pushing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment while downplaying risks in public despite private warnings. After attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Navarro was convicted of contempt of Congress in 2023 and sentenced to four months in jail in 2024, making him the first former White House official imprisoned for that crime. In his second term, he has driven Trump's aggressive tariff policies, including the "reciprocal tariff" plan announced in April 2025. Notably, his books, such as Death by China, cite a fictional economist named "Ron Vara"—an anagram of his own surname—as a source.