The Dictatorship

Peter Navarro went to prison for Trump. Now the gloves are off.

Published

2 years ago

December 5, 2024

Peter Navarro went to prison for Trump. Now the gloves are off.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked his former trade adviser, Peter Navarroto join his next administration as his “Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing.” Compared to some of Trump’s other choices — like Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Matt Gaetz (who has since withdrawn) for attorney general — Navarro appears at first blush to be a tame choice. He is not dogged by personal sex scandals. And he has substantial formal qualifications for the job — he is a Harvard-trained economist and was a tenured professor at the University of California.

But his policy knowledge and more buttoned-up appearance shouldn’t obscure the reality that he is very much a stick of Trumpian dynamite. The president-elect chose Navarro for his fanatical devotion to two causes: economic nationalism and Trump himself. Navarro can serve as a relatively competent lieutenant — at least by Trump’s standards — while the president pursues his promised radical agenda on tariffs and China. He can also be trusted to help Trump undermine democratic institutions and sit in on top conversations with Trump that could potentially be legally incriminating — and not flip on his boss.

Their main link is a shared interest in fierce economic nationalism, protectionist views on trade and outright paranoia about China.

The Navarro pick comes just months after he was released from a four-month prison sentence after being convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress. Navarro refused to comply with a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. As Politico explained at the time of his sentencingNavarro had a significant role in Trump’s efforts to deny the results of the 2020 election:

The Jan. 6 committee had planned to interview Navarro about his work in the aftermath of the 2020 election to stoke discredited claims of election fraud and to strategize with members of Congress on a plan to block or delay the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Navarro and Bannon pushed a plan that they dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” to encourage members of Congress to mount prolonged challenges to Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, when lawmakers met to certify the results.

Navarro defied the subpoena, claiming he could not be compelled to provide documents or testimony due to executive privilege. That is the concept that, as CNN explains“presidents can shield their aides from having to share internal communications with Congress when it is conducting oversight.” But a federal judge ruled that Navarro failed to prove that Trump had blocked him from testifying to the select committee. Navarro became the first former White House official to be imprisoned for a contempt of Congress conviction.

In other words, even though Trump didn’t come to Navarro’s rescue, Navarro went to jail refusing to say anything that might strengthen the case against Trump. What explains his extreme devotion? It doesn’t hurt that they have similar personality traits, such as grandstanding and a tenuous relationship with the truth. “I still have some principles. But not as many as you might think because I don’t have any concern at all about making stuff up about my opponent that isn’t exactly true,” Navarro wrote in 1998 while reflecting on his many failed efforts to win public office.

But their main link is a shared interest in fierce economic nationalism, protectionist views on trade and outright paranoia about China. Navarro is formally trained as an economist, but he stands on the fringe of his field in his hostility toward free trade and his views on how tariffs work. That position made him appealing to Trump long before Trump’s presidential run. Trump even wrote a blurb endorsing Navarro’s 2012 alarmist documentary “Death by China,” a film adapted from his book by the same name. Navarro described that book as a “survival guide” to outmaneuvering “the planet’s most efficient assassin,” cautioning against ever buying products made in China and prescribing a trade war to generate new jobs in the U.S. His antipathy toward Beijing goes well beyond economics: Navarro also likened China’s growing military to Nazi Germany and counseled an aggressive defense posture toward China.

Navarro played a key role in shaping Trump’s trade strategy during his first term, and his return signals Trump is as serious as ever about pursuing an aggressive tariff strategy, unraveling free trade norms and agreements, and potentially escalating trade wars with China, as well as U.S. allies. To the extent that Navarro influences high-level conversations on China policy, he’s likely to have a high threshold for risk when it comes to destabilizing the complicated and competitive U.S.-Chinese relationship.

Perhaps the best illustration of the kind of figure Navarro is in Trump World — industrious, wonky, obedient — is that even when he was in prison this year for refusing to comply with an inquiry into his involvement in efforts to overturn the election, he was still working on detailed policy proposals for a future Trump administration. While incarcerated he also mocked his former “globalist” rivals within the first Trump administration in correspondence with Semafor. And in August, just hours after being released from prison, he offered the audience classically Trumpian sounding rhetoric at the Republican National Convention: “If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful. They will come for you.” Does he believe it? Who knows. But Navarro knows that his political window is open for a little longer.

Zeeshan Aleem

Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for BLN Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Blue Light News, and he has also been published in, among other places, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Intercept. You can sign up for his free politics newsletter here.

The Dictatorship

Friday’s Mini-Report, 6.12.26

Published

10 minutes ago

June 13, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Stay tuned: “After a week of strikes between Iran and U.S. forces, President Donald Trump said the two countries are finalizing an agreement to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He said that a possible deal could be signed ‘maybe over the weekend in Europe.’”

* In related news: “On a background call with reporters, a senior administration official placed their confidence about a deal being reached at ‘80%, 85%’ and added that leaders ‘expect to be signing this agreement over the next few days.’”

* This ruling extends a related court order from two weeks ago: “A federal judge in Virginia on Friday extended her block on the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion compensation fund for individuals who believe they were victims of an alleged ‘weaponized’ federal government.”

* At the Kennedy Center: “A federal judge on Friday struck down a last-ditch attempt by the Kennedy Center’s board to keep President Donald Trump’s name on the building.”

* The White House was no doubt far more satisfied with these proceedings: “A federal judge refused to halt the UFC Freedom 250 cage fights set for this weekend at the White House, despite a lawsuit that called the event a ‘volcano of corruption’ that will mark ‘the first private, for-profit sporting event ever held on White House grounds.’”

* The administration continues to find new ways to make Vladimir Putin happy: “The United States plans to significantly reduce the aircraft and warships that it makes available for NATO operations in Europe, according to two senior European officials, accelerating America’s effort to scale down the protection it has offered to European allies for eight decades.”

* Remember when Trump pretended to express sympathy for Iranian dissidents and activists? “The Trump administration is preparing to deport nearly two dozen people to the Central African Republic on Thursday, including at least two Iranian women who had sought refuge in the United States, according to lawyers and a government official. The flight, which is also expected to include migrants from Afghanistan and Syria, would mark the first such deportation to the Central African Republic, a deeply impoverished country that has been plagued by conflict.”

* On the National Mall: “Federal authorities are investigating the origin of large writings spelling out ‘86 47’ that appeared Thursday on the National Mall lawn. U.S. Park Police responded to a report of vandalism on the west lawn of the Washington Monument, where the numbers ‘86 47’ were marked in the grass.”

* Already? “When renovations of the Reflecting Pool were completed last week, President Donald Trump praised its ‘beautiful, clean water.’ Under his predecessors, Trump said, the pool was ‘Terrible. Disgusting … garbage ridden.’ Now, days after the pool was refilled, clumps of green algae have been spotted throughout the water.”

* This whole endeavor has suffered a series of embarrassments: “The Trump Mobile T1 phone, originally marketed as ‘Made in the USA,’ is nearly identical to the two-year-old HTC U24 Pro, a phone made by the Taiwanese company HTC using Chinese parts, according to a technical analysis the repair-guide and parts company iFixit conducted in partnership with NBC News.”

* I feel this one serves as a compelling metaphor: “President Donald Trump vows to ‘make America healthy again.’ But one of Trump’s golf courses risked making patrons sick, New York state health records indicate. A Dutchess County health inspector flagged the Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley in Hopewell Junction, New York, for a ‘critical violation’ at its restaurant, according to New York State Department of Health inspection records from April 16.”

Have a safe weekend.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Opening of Canada-US Gordie Howe bridge in Detroit is delayed

Published

17 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Opening of Canada-US Gordie Howe bridge in Detroit is delayed

DETROIT (AP) — The opening of a Canadian-U.S. bridge across the Detroit River, which President Donald Trump had previously threatened to block, was delayed Thursday due to unresolved issues.

In a statement released before a scheduled Friday ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority said that “Canada and the United States have agreed to delay the opening of the bridge, taking the necessary time to resolve any outstanding issues.” It didn’t elaborate on what those issues are or how long the delay would last.

The 1.5-mile-long (2.4-kilometer-long) Gordie Howe International Bridge spans the Detroit River and connects the Motor City with Windsor, Ontario. The bridge is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan and was expected to open to traffic later this month.

But the opening had been thrown into question after Trump in February demanded in a social media post that Canada turn over at least half of the bridge’s ownership to the U.S. federal government and agree to other unspecified demands in one of the Republican president’s many salvos over cross-border trade issues.

Michigan officials and the White House had been in contact for months about the bridge following Trump’s post, with the understanding that the opening would move forward Friday. Invitations for the bridge’s opening went out this week following a conversation between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“This project is a powerful example of bipartisan and international cooperation, and the governor looks forward to attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony when it happens,” a statement from Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy said.

New bridge a “long-term play”

Internal disagreements within the Trump administration threw those plans into question, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pushed back on the opening, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private talks.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday evening, “At the request of the United States we agreed to delay the opening and take the necessary time to resolve outstanding issues.”

He added, “There are some things that have been raised, a series of technical aspects, which we will work through with the United States.”

Even with the delay, officials remained optimistic that the bridge — a roughly $4.4 billion project — is still expected to open.

“We need to keep this very much in perspective,” said Sandy Baruah, president of the Detroit Regional Chamber and former U.S. assistant secretary of commerce. “Our organization, the state of Michigan and others have been working on this bridge for 20 years. If it opens July 1, Aug. 1 or Sept. 1, I’m not going to get overly agitated about it. This is a long-term play.”

Named after the late Canadian Hockey great Gordie Howe, who spent 25 seasons leading the Detroit Red Wings, the bridge is expected to be another vital economic artery between Canada and the United States.

The construction project was negotiated by Rick Snyder, the former Republican governor of Michigan, and paid for by Canada to help ease congestion at the existing Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Work has been underway since 2018.

U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, said she’s taking people at their word that the holdup is “a minor hiccup.”

“This is probably the most bipartisan issue in the state of Michigan, so it’s ridiculous that we can’t just seal the deal,” Slotkin said.

Commerce and border crossings

Detroit and Windsor have been neighborly for generations, with residents in both countries frequently crossing the shared river border for entertainment and shopping. Windsor’s population in 2021 was about 230,000. Like Detroit, the Canadian city’s economy has a strong focus on manufacturing and the auto industry.

Commercial trade between the two cities primarily has been across the nearly century-old and privately-owned Ambassador Bridge, which is closer to downtown Detroit than the Gordie Howe Bridge.

The Ambassador Bridge had been the busiest commercial border crossing between the United States and Canada until last year, when truck traffic along the Blue Water Bridge connecting Port Huron, Michigan, to Sarnia, Ontario, surpassed the Ambassador Bridge’s numbers, according to the Bridge and Tunnel Operators Association.

In 2025, about 2.1 million trucks crossed the Blue Water Bridge compared to just over 1.8 million that used the Ambassador Bridge. About 3.5 million passenger vehicles used the Ambassador Bridge last year, while 1.6 million crossed via the Blue Water Bridge.

Combined, more than 9.2 million vehicles crossed the border on those two bridges in 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

More than 3.7 million cars and SUVs also traveled between the United States and Canada last year via the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

Both bridges and the tunnel are working at full capacity, and the new bridge will help improve the efficiency of commercial and personal traffic between the two countries, Baruah said.

“This is what government is supposed to do, make it easier for business to conduct commerce,” he said.

___

Cappelletti reported from Washington.

The Dictatorship

$60M and 7 federal agencies required to stage UFC fight at White House…

Published

17 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

$60M and 7 federal agencies required to stage UFC fight at White House…

President Donald Trump’s planned UFC fight on the White House’s South Lawn has required a monumental effort from more than seven federal agencies, hundreds of staff working onsite daily and at least $60 million, according to a legal filing that offers a glimpse into the preparations.

The event is part of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, and is scheduled for the weekend with the main attraction — seven mixed martial arts matches — on Sunday.

That is, if a judge doesn’t halt the proceedings, which is sought by two Virginia residents in a federal lawsuit against the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn.

The agency filed a rebuff of the request Tuesday in court, and, in it, laid out the operations for the event.

“Well over $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been expended,” the document read, adding that the money came from the UFC and groups affiliated with it.

The Octagon

It’s the eight-sided cage that surrounds the sometimes bloodied combatants and sits at the center of the constructed arena on the South Lawn.

The arena is expected to hold 4,000 spectators, with another 120,000 visitors — who swung tickets from an online lottery — anticipated to watch from the nearby Ellipse.

The installation began May 20, and the Secret Service worked with the UFC to screen between 20 and 30 trucks of equipment — as well as between “700 and 900” staff — that came in daily for the installation.

The document did not specify the extent of government resources spent on the project, but said seven agencies, including Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration, have “allocated significant resources and manpower.”

The schedule

It’ll kick off Saturday with a ceremonial weigh-in at the Ellipse, followed by a concert by country musicians The Zac Brown Band.

A UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest will be ongoing through the weekend, with “interactive experiences,” live shows, celebrity appearances, “exclusive on-stage moments,” meet and greets, live music and interviews with the athletes.

Sunday night is when the seven bouts kick off. At the close, Trump is scheduled to fly to France for the G7 summit.

Disassembly of the installations will begin the next day, and they are expected to be entirely removed by June 23.

The athletes’ Epsom salt baths

There are 14 athletes competing, and their training is rigorous.

Preparations start months in advance, working toward more intense weight cutting and diet alteration in the final week that can include fasting, extreme sauna use and hot Epsom salt baths.

They could be shaving as many as 20 pounds before weigh-ins, which are designed to keep the competition fair between similarly weighted combatants.

Lawsuit calls it ‘corrupt’

It was filed Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of the two Virginia residents and argues that Trump’s authorization of the event violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands.

One of the attorneys, Brendan Ballou, characterized it as a “corrupt use of our most sacred national monuments for private gain.”

The National Park Service pushed back on that claim, but also detailed the event’s preparations to make a point.

“All these hopes could be dashed at the very last moment,” it read, “by the whim of two people who believe they have superior taste and want to spoil the event for everyone else.”