Controversy's Child and MAGA's Economic Crusader

Peter Navarro has never been mistaken for a consensus builder.

- JAYANTH JACOB

A Harvard-trained economist turned economic street fighter, he's made a career out of picking fights against markets, against allies, and often, against reality.

Once a fringe academic raging against globalization, Navarro is now cemented in Donald Trump's second-term White House as both trusted warrior and ideological bulldozer.

While China has long been Navarro's chosen villain, he's now training his firepower on a new target, India.

And he's gone nuclear. In recent weeks, he's accused New Delhi of financing Vladimir Putin's "war," calling India the "Maharaja of tariffs" and a "laundromat for the Kremlin." He alleges that India's continued Russian oil imports are propping up the war machine in Ukraine and shifting the financial burden onto American taxpayers. "This isn't neutrality," Navarro said. "It's war profiteering under another name."

India's trade policy, according to Navarro, is a double insult: sky-high tariffs on U.S. goods combined with opportunistic profiteering from discounted Russian oil. "They cheat us on trade," he said. "They have massive tariffs and still expect access to our markets."