Today, the Times Outlook section published a piece by convicted felon and well-documented academic fraudster Peter Navarro. They identified him as: “Peter Navarro, an assistant to President Trump and senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.”
This is like publishing Jeffrey Epstein and identifying him as a “well-known financial advisor.”
The Times could have credited the piece to Ron Vara, a character that Navarro invented and used as a source in many of his books. Shockingly, Mr. Vara was described as an economic expert who agreed with Peter Navarro. This decade-long fraud was uncovered by journalist Tom Bartlett writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The piece was titled, “Trump’s China Muse Has an Imaginary Friend,” and detailed the many ways in which Navarro’s imaginary expert had been employed to validate Navarro’s own nutty ideas. “You’ve got to be nuts to eat Chinese food,” the illustrious Harvard-educated Vara was quoted by Navarro, the two agreeing that Navarro’s fear of China was well-sourced.
Continuing his pattern of creating fictional characters, Navarro tried to create a victim of political prosecution who was being attacked by an unfair judicial system. That fantastical character was how Peter Navarro tried to portray himself when he was sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to respond to a subpoena from the Congressional committee investigating January 6. “You are not a victim,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, scolded the ever-delusional Navarro. “You are not a victim of political prosecution. You are not.”
Peter Navarro is a criminal and a liar working for a criminal and a liar. Why in the world would the New York Times offer up the most valuable space in journalism to lend their credibility to a crook and a liar?