Donald Trump is a bellicose man, who surrounds himself with bellicose men.
I don’t know if it’s my place to have opinions about public figures. I also have questioned having opinions about current controversies, when the controversies that will matter will be those current once William Tell is on the air — assuming that those will matter, even then. Controversies come and go, and it seems to me to be mainly a matter of the mainstream media’s collective whim. Anyone needs to mature beyond allowing the media to dictate one’s preoccupations.
All that said, I can say a few things about a few people.
Steve Bannon creates trouble everywhere he goes.
Peter Navarro is an odd bird for an academic. Well, I guess if I search my mind, I can think of several odd birds for academics. But here I can recall having had my doubts about him even while Trump was still in power. He seems not to know his place.
The HuffPost article linked to, concerns an appearance by Navarro on Bannon’s podcast. Bannon himself is currently facing a criminal charge of contempt of Congress.
I’m not going to quote from the HuffPost piece. You can read it for yourself; I regard some of its comments as questionable, or prejudicial, or both. The Wikipedia article, in contrast, greatly informed me as to where Navarro comes from. Excerpts:
Peter Kent Navarro … served in the Trump administration as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator.
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Navarro’s views on trade are significantly outside the mainstream of economic thought, and are widely considered fringe by other economists.
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On January 29, 2020, Navarro issued a memo warning that novel coronavirus could “evolv[e] into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans” and that the “risk of a worst-case pandemic scenario should not be overlooked”. He argued for restrictions on travel from China.[90][91] Navarro wrote another memo on February 23, 2020, arguing that the disease “could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls” and calling for an “immediate supplemental appropriation of at least $3 billion.”[92] At the same time that Navarro issued these private warnings, he publicly stated that the American people had “nothing to worry about” regarding the coronavirus.[20]
The vendetta against Fauci began with a dispute over the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID:
In February 2020 virologist Steven Hatfill[*] became Navarro’s advisor with regard to the coronavirus pandemic. Hatfill was a strong promoter of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid, even though the drug’s effectiveness was unproven.[101][102] By April Navarro, and the president himself, were touting the drug as a lifesaver.[103] Navarro clashed with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, over whether the administration should promote the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus.[104] In July 2020, Navarro touted a widely criticized study as showing that hydroxychloroquine was an effective coronavirus treatment; public health experts pointed to limitations with the study and to the fact that multiple randomized controlled trials failed to conclude that hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment.
[*]The article on Steven Hatfill states that he was “an unpaid ‘volunteer'” in that role.
I recently re-wrote my resume. It now begins with a discussion of making life easier for everyone, and concludes with an exhortation to “Enjoy life!” Peter Navarro is not about either one.
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