I mentioned kakistocracy in the article Impoverishment of thought. The Cambridge Dictionary defines this as “a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.”
Peter Navarro is 78-year-old Donald Trump’s 75-year-old counsellor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro provides just part of the evidence that the President’s kakistocracy is now in place.
.
Except for Trump supporters like those fêted by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, all Canadians know Navarro’s utterings are either considered lies or a sign that dementia is not a disabling characteristic for service in the White House.
“A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.” — English poet William Shenstone
Navarro has registered as a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent, and allied himself with Ronald Reagan, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The political chameleon has run for public office repeatedly and been rejected each time by voters. Mainstream economists reject Navarro’s ideas.
University of Michigan Professor of Economics Jason Wolfers wrote in the New York Times in 2017 about Navarro and Trump policies :
On issues like restricting trade, directly intervening to assist specific industries or corporations, targeting tax cuts to the wealthy, his agenda stands as a rejection of the advice that mainstream economist have typically offered.
And partly this reflects Mr. Trump’s appointments. Few of his key economic advisers have any economics training, and the only official who identifies as an economist — Peter Navarro, who earned a Harvard Ph.D. in economics and will head up the newly formed National Trade Council — stands so far outside the mainstream that he endorses few of the key tenets of the profession.
Dr. Wolfers continues to sound alarms at Bluesky. He is worth following.
Writing in The Atlantic, distinguished Italian journalist Beppe Severgnini examined today’s politics in the USA and described the scariest element of all. According to Gallup, Trump’s approval rating is higher now than in the first months of 2017.
Today, we are in a kakistocracy, government by the worst. And tens of millions of American voters are proud of it, or at least happy to appear so. The copyright of this questionable political style belongs at least in part to former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Trump himself: Both, in 2016, won by proudly displaying their whims and weaknesses.
…If [elected leaders] betrayed trust—and it often happened, everywhere—they lost their job and their reputation. Today, being labeled a good example or an expert is not only anachronistic; it is risky…
in-sights.ca 
Perhaps Navarro learned about cartels and pill presses during his recent stint behind bars.
LikeLike
Navarro has long been a man devoid of principles and scruples, so he fits easily into the world of Trump. In 2020, Propublica wrote about Navarro:
Long before Peter Navarro’s feud with infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci over a possible treatment for coronavirus, the White House trade adviser had a reputation as a political wrecking ball in California — where he ran in a handful of races as a liberal Democrat.
The combative and cocksure approach that mark his arguments for the use of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine are familiar to California Democrats who assisted Navarro’s early political forays in Southern California, when he unsuccessfully ran for office in San Diego five times between 1992 and 2001.
Back then, they recall, Navarro’s temper and ego often proved to be his undoing in campaigns where he literally stood alongside Hillary Clinton, railed against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the personification of political evil and positioned himself as a “strong environmentalist and a progressive on social issues such as choice, gay rights, and religious freedom.”
… A former Republican and independent, Navarro made the switch to the Democratic Party after his independent run for mayor in 1992. In subsequent losing campaigns for city council, county supervisor and Congress, he dismissed the GOP as aligned to an “every man for himself” approach, at one point arguing that instead, “we ought to progressively tax the rich to help everybody else.”
… Navarro made so many bids for public office that it became an inside joke to some party regulars. “You know that game, ‘Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?’,’’ the insider said, recalling that one GOP operative “had a map on his office wall that was called, “Where in San Diego is Peter Navarro?” which featured “all the places he moved to, in order to keep running for office.”
in a separate action, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission also fined Navarro for improperly reporting loans. … in a separate action, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission also fined Navarro for improperly reporting loans…
LikeLike
Mr. Edwardson, Mr. Farrell,
Funny you should mention Mr. Navarro.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/doesn-t-exist-maddow-exposes-trump-ally-who-invented-expert-using-anagram-of-his-name/ar-AA1Ckz5K?ocid=BingNewsSerp
According to Rachel Maddow, Mr. Navarro rose to prominence quoting a prominent scholar named, Ron Vara.
“In all of his books, Peter Navarro has cited an economics expert to justify his views, and the economics expert he cites is somebody named Ron Vara,” who, Maddow added, sent out a memo around Washington at the start of Trump’s first administration touting the benefits of a tariff policy.
“The problem is, Ron Vara doesn’t exist, he never has,” Maddow said. “The economics expert that Peter Navarro has long cited to explain why he’s so gung-ho on tariffs, this person, Ron Vara, is a made-up person. He is a fictional person. Peter Navarro invented Ron Vara as his expert source, so he could quote this expert source over and over and over again in his crackpot books.”
“Maddow then answered the pressing question at hand: Who is Ron Vara?”
“Ron Vara is an anagram of Navarro, which is his last name,” an exasperated Maddow said. “I mean, my name anagrams to ‘Macho Wadler,’ but I don’t see myself trying to talk you into doing what Macho Wadler wants, right?”
“She concluded to viewers that Trump’s tariff plan came to pass through “a fake memo from a fake person with a fake email address in order to make it look like this was a serious issue being debated by real experts.”
LikeLike