Trump taps Peter Navarro as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing

• Navarro went to prison after defying a subpoena from the bipartisan House panel that investigated the riot.

Driving the news: Trump said in his statement naming Navarro to the post that his role would be to "help successfully advance and communicate the Trump Manufacturing, Tariff, and Trade Agendas."

• "During my First Term, few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules, Buy American, Hire American," Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Flashback: Navarro, fresh off his release from a Miami prison after a four-month sentence, took the stage at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Zoom in: Trump credited Navarro with helping him "renegotiate unfair" trade deals during his first term, citing NAFTA (which was substituted by the USMCA) and the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

• Trump has pledged that tariffs will be key priority for his next administration. He's already threatened to tax all goods from Canada and Mexico, as well as levy higher tariffs on Chinese goods.

Between the lines: Navarro, the most hardline China hawk in the first Trump administration, is a Harvard-trained economist whose views are nonetheless considered unorthodox.

• He courted controversy for quoting himself in his books via the made-up commentator Ron Vara.
• Navarro was reported to have appealed to Trump's protectionist tendencies during his first term, fueling the president-elect's affinity for tariffs.

In recent days, he's railed against President Biden's pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.

• But Navarro told the Wall Street Journal in May he didn't want a pardon from Trump, writing from prison, "I didn't choose this fight, this fight chose me."

Go deeper: Navarro's dream cabinet for a potential second Trump term

Editor's note: This story was updated with additional details and context.