Trump’s advisory circus: These are the millionaires he trusts with his economic policy

When Donald Trump first ran for office, he had no team. He had to scramble to recruit advisors. It’s said that Peter Navarro was chosen by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, while searching Amazon for candidates because he was intrigued by the title of his book, Death by China. Trump recruited him as his main trade advisor.

Navarro was supported by Ron Vara, whose compelling arguments and messages consistently backed him — until it was revealed that Ron Vara didn’t exist. Ron Vara, an anagram of “Navarro,” was a fictional economist Navarro invented and repeatedly cited in his own books as an expert source.

Navarro, one of the key figures behind Trump’s trade war declarations, has sat at the president’s side alongside a cast of advisors, each with different sensibilities, often contradicting one another. Yet they all share one trait: unflinching public loyalty to Trump, even at the cost of their own credibility.

“If you hire clowns, you should expect a circus. And my fellow Americans, we have hired a group of clowns,” wrote columnist Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times last week after Trump’s about-face on tariffs.

“This team is the best in history,” Navarro said on the conservative Fox network.

These are the president’s advisors.

Peter Navarro

He’s a tariff radical. A staunch defender of the absurd formula used to calculate them, the president’s advisor was one of the loudest voices rejecting trade negotiations — until Trump changed course, and now he defends them just as fervently. At 75, he’s been a Democrat, a Republican, and an independent. He proved his loyalty to Trump by choosing jail over testifying before the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

When he walked out of federal prison in Miami last summer, he headed straight to the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he received a hero’s welcome. A former professor at the University of California, this trade hawk is obsessed with China, which he sees as an existential threat to the United States. He’s clashed with Elon Musk over tariffs — Musk once called him “a moron,” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.” And he brought up Ron Vara.

Scott Bessent

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent his second consecutive weekend in Florida. This past Friday, he was seen aboard Air Force One as Donald Trump boasted about how masterfully he had handled the tariff situation. Just a week earlier, Bessent had traveled to Mar-a-Lago to try to convince the president to pause the tariffs, warning of the risks he saw building in the markets. His efforts failed — until a collapse in the stock market, bonds, and the dollar forced the president’s hand.

When Bessent finally addressed the press, he insisted: “This was [Trump’s] strategy all along.” Moments later, Trump arrived and contradicted him, admitting that he had changed course because investors were getting nervous.

Bessent is Wall Street’s inside man in Washington — the one who fields calls from bankers and investors. He’s considered the most level-headed member of the economic team. His economic blueprint was dubbed the 3-3-3 plan: 3% GDP growth, three million additional barrels of oil per day, and cutting the public deficit to 3%. Tariffs could undermine all three goals.

At 62, Bessent made his fortune anticipating macroeconomic shifts through his hedge fund, Key Square Group. After moving to Washington, he bought a $12.5 million mansion in Georgetown. Openly gay, he has been married to his husband since 2011, and they have two children.

Howard Lutnick

Lutnick, 63, carries the weight of tragedy from the September 11 attacks. His investment bank, Cantor Fitzgerald, occupied some of the highest floors of the North Tower, and on that fateful day, the firm lost 658 of its 960 New York employees, including Lutnick’s brother.

Lutnick had long aspired to be Treasury Secretary and was Elon Musk’s top pick for the role. However, Trump chose Scott Bessent for the position. In a Solomonic move, Trump appointed Lutnick to handle tariff policy as Secretary of Commerce. When Trump announced the 90-day trade pause via Truth Social, his social media platform, Lutnick and Bessent were standing by his side.

Lutnick has tried, without much success, to sell protectionist trade policy to businesses. And a few ill-received television appearances have eroded some of Trump’s confidence in him. A billionaire in his own right, Lutnick made headlines for purchasing a $25 million mansion in Washington, setting a record as the city’s most expensive home purchase.

Stephen Miran

Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, previously served as a strategist at Hudson Bay Capital. In that role, he authored A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System, a work that has become essential reading. “We may be on the cusp of generational change in the international trade and financial systems,” he writes. Among his key ideas is that the strength of the dollar has exacerbated the United States’ trade deficit and weakened its industrial base. He argues that unilateral tariffs and trade wars could help rebuild the system, potentially forcing numerous countries to raise the value of their currencies.

In the White House, Miran continues to champion this radical stance. He believes the dollar must remain the world’s reserve currency, and that the U.S. should guarantee global security. However, in return, other countries must compensate the U.S. for its leadership — whether through tariffs, arms purchases, investments, or other concessions. “Simply write checks to the Treasury,” he said.

Kevin Hassett

The 63-year-old director of the National Economic Council previously served as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term. Despite having no background in epidemiology, he developed a cubic model that predicted a sharp drop in Covid-19 deaths, projecting them to reach zero within two months of the pandemic’s onset. The model was a resounding failure. A staunch advocate of tax cuts, he has also been forced to defend Trump’s aggressive tariffs — what amounted to the largest tax increase ever enacted by a U.S. president.

Jamieson Greer

The top U.S. trade representative is a lawyer who previously served as chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, who held the same position during Trump’s first term. A dedicated Trump supporter, Greer consistently lavishes praise on his boss during Cabinet meetings and is expected to play a key role in trade negotiations. However, as demonstrated by his reaction during a congressional appearance on Wednesday, he is not always prepared for the unexpected, as he was caught off guard by Trump’s sudden change of position on tariffs.

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