The global financial markets are being swept by an unexpected cold wave.
After Trump announced an extreme policy of imposing "reciprocal tariffs" on almost all trade partners, the panic in global capital markets reached its peak:
On April 7th, by 10 PM Eastern Time, S&P 500 index futures fell 5.98%, Nasdaq 100 index futures dropped 6.2%. Dow Jones index futures fell 5.5%.
Asian markets were 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 like an alarm, signaling a larger turbulence.
Data from CoinGlass shows that cryptocurrency liquidations have surged to around $892 million, including over $300 million in Bitcoin 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 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 steady".
Unrealized losses are not losses; if you haven't sold, you haven't lost.
It's hard to imagine such an ineffective consolation, bordering on a mental victory, coming from a senior presidential trade advisor and university economics professor.
This statement clearly failed to calm market anxiety and instead drew attention to him - this Harvard PhD, dubbed a "non-mainstream economist" by outsiders, 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"; and questioning whether Navarro has ever created any substantive achievements.
Who exactly 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: I have translated the text as requested, preserving the <> tags and their content, and translating the rest of the text to English.)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 the, 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, arguing that the United States must use tough measures to reverse trade deficits and protectect domestic industries. This theory also laid the the groundwork for his later entry into Trump Trump's decision-making circle.
His pen had long been pointed at China, and fate would open a larger door for him in 2016.
Supported by Trump Trump's Son-in-Law, Entering the Core Circle
The book ""Death by China" did not create waves in the mainstream economics, communityectaccidentally knocked on the door of Trump's campaign team.
According to reports, during Trump's campaign before his first term in 2016, his son-in-law Jared Kushner accidentally discovered the Amazon and was attracted by its sharp criticism trade and immediately recommended the book to Donald Trump.
Trump greatly impressed reading, directly saying: "This guy understands my thinking."
Navarro later recalled that his role from the beginning was to "provide analytical support for Trump's trade trade intuition". Trump, who came from a business background, was well-and the two's thoughts might have coincidentally aligned at the underlying logic, and fate was thus ignited.
On January 20, 2017, the same day Trump was sworn in, Navarro officially entered the White House as the director of the newly established National Trade Council.
When the-US out in 2018, Navarro's figure was everywhere. He declared at a Houseing "must pay the for its."
That year year, he also helped draft Trump's tariff order on global steel and aluminum imports, directly leading to trade friction with the the EU and tCanada. Nav>
However, Navarro's days in the the the 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 diminand even called him a "loyal warrior" while in prison.
On January 20, 2025, Trump returned to the White House, and Navarro also 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 on Canada, China, and Mexico, promoting the trade policy memorandum signed by Trump on his first day.
Navarro's "Reciprocal Tariffs" plan - calculating additional tax rates based on trade deficits, such as 46% for Vietnam, 20% the for became the cornercornerstone of the new policy. In an interview with CNBC, he defended: "These are not negotiation chips, but necessities of a national emergency."
This stance is consistent with his academic arguments from over a decade ago.
From a book in 2016 to the brain of trade wars in 2025, Navarro's connection with Trump was not coincidental.
Despite being surrounded by controversy and even imprisoned, Navarro has always been the soul of Trump's trade strategy. He from the academic margins to the center of power, relying not just on luck, but on his obsession with trade confrontation.
The Superior Strategist Attacks Strategies, the Inferior Attacks Cities
The convergence of Trump and Navarro is about to face its most severe test in the global market in 2025.
Going back to Navarro's opening words, "Not selling stocks means no loss" - does this non-mainstream economist truly understand the 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 superior strategis to attack strategies, the next is to attack alliances, the next is to attack troops, and the lowest is to attack cities." Winning without fighting is the top strategy.
The wisdom of ancestors is to win through strategy and and diplomacy, not direct warfare.
However, Navarro and Trump's tariff declaration is exactly the opposite - opposite - choosing direct confrontation, exchanging so-called "fairness" at a high economicically price.
This hard-hitting approach approach not only failed to weaken the opponent but also put US businesses and. Economists estimate that % iffs ofiffs on China will raise import commodity prices, ultimately paid by American citizens.
Reality is from theoretical discussions.
Dragging the global economy into chaos. His role as a pusher is undeniable, but whether the cost of this war is worth it remains an unknown.
