THE LATEST TRUMP FAKIR

Meet Dr. Peter Kent Navarro, Ph.D., President Trump's principal trade adviser, who was just given the added job of heading a task force to supply PPE to the nation's hospitals. (If you thought that was Jared Kushner's job, welcome to the club.)

Navarro is the latest liar to step into the Trump-appointee spotlight.

Navarro's claim to fame is that he has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, and he has plugged his climb to a degree of prominence as a "China-hawk." Described as "self-important" (I read his resume. It is 17 pages long!) and "quick tempered," he is the author of books and articles attacking China. His most cited work is entitled, "Death by China." and is but one of thirteen books in which Navarro supports his anti-China arguments by quoting from the famed international economic expert Ron Vara.

What? You never heard of Ron Vara? Me neither. You and I are not alone. When an Australian scholar also wondered about the career and accomplishments of China expert Vara, his extensive research failed to unearth any mention of him outside of Navarro's written output. Convinced Navarro had created a fictive character to support his argument, the journalist confronted Navarro and accused him of fraud.

Navarro's response: "So what? Can't you take a joke?"

Am I the only one, who upon reading this incident, is reminded of the stories of pre-presidential Donald Trump creating a fictional character who then calls up a magazine and tells the author a series of lies with the purpose of getting Donald J. Trump onto a list of the 400 wealthiest people?

Navarro is clearly a man of many talents. Like the President who claims "to have an instinct for science," Navarro is reported to have invited himself to a covid-19 task force meeting in the situation room and single handedly persuaded Trump that hydrochloroquine could cure Covid-19. Trump immediately left the meeting where he plugged the drug during his press conference.

At another meeting, where the scientists urged the president to maintain social distancing, and said it that it was too early to send people back to crowded conditions, Navarro argued to the contrary. When asked what was the basis of his opposition to the medical professionals, Navarro responded that his Ph.D. in economics facilitated his reading and understanding of statistics on any subject, including medicine.

There is no doubt that Trump's tolerance for scientist-in-chief Dr. Anthony Fauci is growing thin. Trump supporters openly charge that Fauci's arguments to maintain mitigation is an effort by Fauci intentionally to sabotage the economy in order to hurt Trump's reelection bid. The drumbeat has intensified since Fauci's recent statement, in the clear,  that "more lives would have been saved if the country were shut down sooner." Trump has retweeted a call to fire Fauci.

"Dr." Navarro defends Trump against those who argue that his failure to act sooner has cost American lives. 

Trump says he acted promptly after learning the facts about the dangers of the pandemic, and those dangers weren't clear until the middle of March, when, for the first time, Trump supported social distancing mitigation. That claim is, of course, absurd, because Trump himself said he knew this was a pandemic at the beginning.

The evidence of Trump's early knowledge is not debatable. In January, 2020, two months before Trump took any action in support of putting social distancing mitigation in place, his National Security Pandemic group predicted the spread of the virus. 

And on January 29, six weeks before Trump acted, the esteemed expert of everything, Dr. Peter Navarro, Ph. D., submitted a memo setting out the risk to the U.S. and the "need to take aggressive action."  Navarro predicted 500,000 dead, millions hospitalized, trillions in economic loss. 

Two weeks later, Navarro wrote another memo referring to the "increased probability of a full blown covid-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans and cause 1.2 million deaths'"

Trump's reaction? The man is, if anything, consistent. He continued to tell the public, "It's like a miracle. Our cases will go down, not up. One day, like a miracle, it will go away."

How could Trump say that after the two Navarro memos? Did he see or learn of them? Sure he did: Trump told members of his staff he was sorry Navarro put it in writing. In other words, Where's My Roy Cohn?

The Trumpians are now screaming for Fauci's head because of his expressed view that it is too early to open the country. He is besieged with death threats (literally) and the only thing that keeps him on the scene is that the public trusts him (78%) vs. Trump (46%)!

Dr. Navarro, Ph.D., (surprise, surprise) is now firmly in the Trump camp to open the country sooner rather than later. How could that be after those two memos?

Because doc Navarro, relying on both his medical and economic expertise, has reached the astonishing conclusion that a continued mitigation pause will kill more people than covid-19.

I guess he must be correct about that because he has a Ph.D., from Harvard yet?

A bientot.

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