Peter Navarro, Trump tariff hawk who cites fictional expert ‘Ron Vara’ – his own ‘alter ego’ – in books | World News

The most amusing part of the above – the name ‘Ron Vara’ is derived from Navarro itself.

US President Donald Trump in April 2025 announced sweeping tariffs on nearly all imported goods from countries – a move that reignited debate over protectionist trade policies and drew sharp criticism across the political spectrum.

Back then, one of the most viral reactions came from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, whose primetime segment sought to decode the origins of Trump’s tariff strategy. In doing so, Maddow made a startling claim: that Peter Navarro, a longtime Trump economic adviser and staunch supporter of tariffs, had repeatedly cited a “fictional expert” to justify his views.

Ron Vara = Navarro?

The fictional expert “Ron Vara,” was said to have been invented by Navarro himself – the name being an anagram of “Navarro.” Maddow’s report claimed that Navarro had used the alias in multiple books and even authored a pro-tariff policy memo under the name.

While no direct connection was found between Ron Vara and Trump’s 2025 tariff rollout, Navarro has publicly defended the new tariffs under his real name and continues to serve as an economic adviser of the White House in the Trump administration.

Lately, Navarro has made wild remarks on India, calling the country “maharaja of tariffs”, “laundromat of Russia” and the Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war”. In fresh remarks on Sunday, Navarro said “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.”

Ron Vara is Navarro’s “alter ego”

The claim of Maddow’s report earlier this year quickly gained traction online, with fact-checking confirming that Navarro had indeed used the Ron Vara pseudonym in his earlier writings.

An article by the New York Times in December 2019 also corroborated the story, reporting that Navarro acknowledged using the name as early as 2001 and admitted in 2019 to having written under the alias. Navarro described Vara at the time as a “whimsical device and pen name” meant for entertainment, not as a factual source.

While the NYT report might have made Ron Vara more known, the origins of the fictional expert’s revelation trace back to an investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education just two months ago that year, according to a snopes.com report. The Chronicle of Higher Education piece reported that Tessa Morris-Suzuki, professor emeritus at the Australian National University, first questioned the expert’s identity. Unable to find any record of Ron Vara despite his frequent appearances in Navarro’s books – often as chapter-opening quotes – Morris-Suzuki’s suspicions were confirmed by journalist Tom Bartlett, who traced the name across at least six publications.

Bartlett spoke with two of Navarro’s co-authors. One acknowledged Vara as Navarro’s “alter ego,” while the other said he had no idea the expert was fictitious and did not approve of the inclusion of a made-up persona in a nonfiction work.

Navarro’s publisher reportedly later quietly added a disclaimer to next editions acknowledging that ‘Ron Vara’ was entirely made up.