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The global financial market is being swept by an unexpected cold wave.
After Trump announced an extreme policy of imposing "reciprocal tariffs" on almost all trading partners, the panic in the global capital markets reached its peak:
On April 7th, by 10 PM Eastern Time, S&P 500 futures fell 5.98%, Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 6.2%, and Dow Jones futures declined 5.5%.
The Asian market was even more filled with risk-averse sentiment, with the Nikkei index falling 8.9% in early trading. The Taiwan Weighted Index plummeted nearly 10% after two days of holidays, with circuit breakers triggered for major stocks like TSMC and Foxconn.
The crypto market was not spared either.
Investors watched their assets shrink, with red lines on crypto trading screens serving as alarms, signaling a larger turbulence.
Data from CoinGlass shows that cryptocurrency liquidations have surged to around $892 million, including over $300 million in BTC long and short positions.
BTC has dropped to around $77,000, while ETH has fallen to $1,500.
The trade war's trumpet has sounded again, with Trump's senior trade advisor Peter Navarro standing at the center of the storm.
On April 6th, Navarro appeared in a Fox News interview.
He tried to calm investor emotions with a somewhat laughable linguistic art:
"The first principle, especially for small investors, is --- unless you sell your stocks now, you won't lose money. The wise strategy is not to panic and hold on".
Unrealized losses are not losses; if you haven't sold, you haven't lost.
It's hard to imagine such an ineffective consolation, almost like a mental victory, coming from a senior presidential trade advisor and university economics professor.
This statement clearly failed to quell market anxiety and instead focused attention on him - this Harvard PhD, dubbed a "non-mainstream economist", who seems not just a policy spokesperson but an unavoidable driving force behind extreme trade protectionism.
Even Musk, who was close to President Trump, recently publicly criticized and subtly mocked this presidential advisor on social media, directly stating that "getting a Harvard economics PhD is not a good thing and might lead to decision-making errors due to excessive self-confidence"; he also questioned whether Navarro had ever created any substantive results.
Who is this economist standing behind Trump? How did he drive this global tariff policy storm?
From the academic margins to the White House's decision-making core, Navarro's life intersecting with Trump's protectionist ideology may have jointly brewed this crisis.
(Note: The translation continues, but I've provided the first part to demonstrate the translation approach.)Mainstream economists, such as Simon Johnson from MIT, have openly criticized his analysis as "too one-sided, ignoring the complexity of global supply chains"; Navarro's harsh wording in his book stands book in stark contrast to the typically refined academic image, has also earned him the label of an "outsider" in the economics community.
However, Navarro built a trade confrontation theory targeting China over more than a decade of academic accumulation, arguing that the United States must use tough measures to reverse trade deficits and protect domestic industries. This theory laid the groundwork for his later entry into into Trump's decision-make making.p pen had long been pointed at China fate would open a larger door for him in 2016.
< h2>Supported by Trump's Son-in-Law, Entering the Core CircleTrump greatly impressed reading it, saying: "This guy understands my thinking."
Navarro later recalled that his role from the beginning was to "provide analytical support for Trump's trade intuition". Trump, coming from a business background and well-versed in trade, had an unspoken agreement with him in underlying logic, and their fate was thus ignited.
On January 20, 2017, the same day Trump was sworn in, Navarro officially entered the's White House as the director of the newly established National Trade Council.
His first task was unsurprisingly focused on China. He quickly promoted a proposal to impose 43% tariffs on Chinese goods and led the policy of imposing a 25% additional tax on steel and aluminum imports.aluminum imports..
When the-US trade broke out018's figure was. He at a House briefing: "China must pay the price for its unfair trade practices."
That year also draft Trump's tariff order on steel and directly leading to trade trade friction with the EU and Canada Canada. Navarro's toughonly appealed to Trump's "America First" stance but also helped him establish a firm footing in the White House.
However, Navarro's days in the core circle were not smooth sailing.
In 2020, he issued a report accusing election fraud and participated in the "Green Bay Sweep" plan on January 6, 2021, ultimately being sentenced to 4 months in prison for contempt of Congress in 2023. Despite this, Trump's trust in him did not dimineven calling him a "loyal warrior" while herrwas in.p>
On January 20, , Trump returned to the White House, And returned as a senior trade and manufacturing advisor. This time,,, his target was more aggressive.
In February, he co-led tariff economic discussions with Stephen Miller targeting Canada, China, and forward the trade policy memorandum signed by Trump Trump Trump his first day..
This stance is consistent with his academic arguments from over a decade ago.
From a book in 2016 to the brain of the trade war in 2025, Navarro's with Trump was not coincidental.
>His protectionist ideas highly aligned disgust for defhis character perfectly matched style.Despite being surrounded by controversy and even imprisoned, Navarro has always been the soul of Trump strategy. He journey walked from from the academic margins to the center of power, relying not just on luck, but his obsession with of withation.Top Military Strategy: Attacking Strategies
The convergence of Trump navand Navarro is about to its most severe test in global market in 2025.
Back to Navarro's opening words, "Not selling stocks won't lose money", does this non-mainstream economist truly understand the economic operation's pulse?
Navarro might be proficient in tariff data but seems to have not comprehended the essence of military strategy.
Sun Tzu's Art of War says: "The top military strategy is to attack strategies, the next is attack troops, the lowest strategy attacks cities."
The wisdom of ancestors is to win through strategy and diplomacy, not direct warfare.
However, Navarro and Trump's tariff declaration is exactly the opposite - choosing directional confrontexchanging so-called "fairness" at a high economic cost.
Economists estimate that 60% of tariffs on on China will raise import goods' prices, ultimately paid by American citizens.
Reality is far from theoretical discussions.>Gging global economy. His role as a pusher is undeniable, but whether this war's cost is worth it remains still an unknown.
