Peter Navarro will return to the White House as a top trade and manufacturing advisor, President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday via Truth Social.
Navarro is an economist who ran the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy and the National Trade Council, which was a new part of Trump’s first administration.
A federal jury found Navarro guilty of refusing to follow a subpoena from a congressional committee looking into the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He was given a four-month prison sentence because he was a loyal supporter of the president-elect. In August, right after getting out of jail, he spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Navarro spread widely disproved claims that there would be voter fraud in the 2020 election.
In his speech on Wednesday, Trump said that Navarro had been “horribly treated by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it.” He said that Navarro “did a superb job” in his first term, which included pushing trade policies that would encourage people to buy American goods and hire American workers.
Who else is joining the Trump administration?
Trump announced Navarro as the first of many people he had chosen to join his administration on Wednesday. Among them are:
Trump has chosen Daniel Driscoll, a senior advisor to Vice President-elect JD Vance, to be secretary of the Army. Driscoll served in the Iraq War and worked in venture capital. Trump said that Dan has a strong mix of experiences that make him a good disruptor and change agent.
A billionaire private astronaut named Jared Isaacman, who is also the CEO of the payment processing company Shift4 Payments, was named Trump’s choice to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Issacman is in charge of the Polaris program, which uses SpaceX vehicles to send private astronauts into orbit. He is connected to Elon Musk, who is a Trump adviser and the CEO of SpaceX.
Isaacman also helped to start Draken International, a company that works on defence and aerospace, and used to be its CEO. Trump said that Jared is perfect to lead NASA into a new era because he is passionate about space, has been an astronaut, and is dedicated to pushing the limits of exploration, solving the mysteries of the universe, and advancing the new space economy.
Trump said that Adam Boehler, who used to be the CEO of the US Development Finance Corporation, will be his special presidential envoy for hostage issues and will have the rank of ambassador.
Trump said that Boehler helped him negotiate the Abraham Accords, which were an agreement between Israel and the Arab world that was made during his first term.
“Adam knows that NO ONE is tougher than the United States of America, at least when President Trump is in charge,” Trump said. “He has negotiated with some of the toughest people in the world, like the Taliban.” “Adam will do everything he can to bring our Great American Citizens HOME.”
In another move, Trump said he had asked Michael Whatley to return as co-chairman of the Republican National Committee. Along with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Whatley ran the RNC.
Trump said, “Michael and Lara turned the RNC into a lean, focused, and powerful machine that will aid the America First Agenda for many years to come.”