NAVARRO ON TRUMP’S SECOND TERM:
government that exists.” On Sept. 7, 2023, Navarro was
found guilty by a jury in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., of two counts of contempt of Con- gress. He was sentenced to four months in prison and a $9,500 fine — something CNN called “histor- ic,” as Navarro had become the first White House official ever sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress. Held in a minimum security pris-
on in Miami, Florida, the former White House staffer and presidential adviser immediately felt he was the recipient of “special” punishment. “Once I was inside, the weapon-
ization began,” Navarro said. “I was the only person in the pris-
on who was there for a misdemean- or. Everyone else was a felon. “Remarkably, I was the only pris-
oner to serve my entire sentence with no time off for good conduct and the provisions under the First Step Act and Second Chance Act, which should have gotten me out 42 days before they actually let me out.” Confined in dormitories (“not jail
cells, and the dormitories can be more dangerous”), Navarro quickly realized what he called “the puni- tive nature” of his punishment and swiftly became a prison reformer. “It was finding out that they
were going to give me the maximum time that I began this journey with- in the prison about the failure of prison authorities to enforce Donald Trump’s First Step Act,” he said. “The story unfolds inside the
prison. It’s a $5 billion problem, and I’m happy to say to the taxpayers of America that I’ve solved the prob- lem, and I did it with the Bureau of Prisons when I got outside. That doesn’t happen very often.” Simply put, the problem that
Navarro uncovered was, as he put it to Newsmax, “under the First Step Act, the nonviolent — and I empha- size that — mostly first offenders are allowed to reduce their sentences if they behave, certainly, but also
if they engage in productive work and training. “The problem was two-fold: one,
the bureaucracy was not counting the First Step credits properly, so inmates were serving the first six months to a year or more longer than they should have, and that costs taxpayers money directly, as prisoners’ expenses. “Second, it costs them indirectly
because the prisoners are not out working and paying taxes, and fami- lies are typically picking up checks for food stamps and housing subsidies.” Longtime economist Navarro
added up the direct and indirect costs, and they came to $5 billion. Another problem he discov-
ered was “that even when prison- ers were supposed to be released, if there is not sufficient halfway house capacity, [prison authorities] would hold on to them in prison rather than let them go to home confinement directly.” Once released, Navarro sought
out U.S. Bureau of Prisons Director Bill Marshall to share his findings. “With the help of a smart com-
puter programmer, we went in and fixed the First Step Act computer program. “Then we got the policy changed
formally so that if there is not enough halfway house capac- ity, they have to send an inmate to home confinement.”
Navarro is proud of the good that
came out of his unexpected stint as a guest in the federal prison system and, in fact, has never asked the president for a pardon. Ever the “numbers guy” and economist, he told us: “Remem- ber, there are three parts to what requires fixing: the marginal cost of someone being in prison rather than working and paying taxes — $1.5 bil- lion on its own — and foregone tax revenues, the cost of welfare pay- ments — all add up to $5 billion we were losing. And I fixed the whole damned thing!”
‘One Band, One Sound’
A
s counselor to President Donald Trump, Peter Navarro’s major task is
dealing with trade and manufacturing. In this capacity, he is a stalwart backer
and “detail man” behind Trump’s policy of imposing tariffs on foreign countries — friendly and not-so-friendly — worldwide. “Tariffs are working great,” he said,
taking a contrary view from many of his fellow American economists. “The transformation of the
international trade system in a way that now works fairly has been one of the greatest underreported achievements of any president in history. It’s truly remarkable.” Regarding the upcoming court ruling on whether the president has the authority to arbitrarily impose tariffs, Navarro admits the administration “has the potential of bumping the road with the Supreme Court with respect to that. “As the boss says, ‘Let’s see what happens with that.’” Navarro strongly believes that
Trump “has truly restructured the entire international trade environment in a way which will be of great benefit to the American people — and never mind the fact it is bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars [to reduce the present trade deficit of $78.31 billion].” Despite his long-standing criticism of personnel in the first Trump administration, Navarro believes this has changed for the better in the second. Virtually all appointees these days
have a record of loyalty to the president and his agenda, he insists. “We were blessed to have Sergio
Gor [now U.S. ambassador to India] to be [White House] personnel director,” Navarro said. “He and the late Charlie Kirk had a tremendous impact on the stafing of the bureaucracy. “They really got us off to a good beginning before we lost Charlie. “The one problem we’re having is the
same problem we had in the first term, which is the Senate is not approving our appointments at anywhere near the rate they should be. It’s terrible. “But we don’t have the kind of infighting that characterized the first administration. I really like everybody in the Cabinet. I know them well. I call it ‘One Band, One Sound.’” — J.G.
JANUARY 2026 | NEWSMAX 47
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