The Peter Navarro Book Controversy Reeks of Voldemort — You Have to Read It to Believe It

Who could have predicted that President Donald Trump and one of the Harry Potter books would have something in common? Recall, if you will, the plot of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In it, Harry stumbles upon an enchanted diary that belonged to a former Hogwarts student named Tom Marvolo Riddle. By the end of the book, we learn that the diary owner's name is actually an anagram for Lord Voldemort.

Fast forward more than 15 years later to President Trump's first campaign. According to CNN's Rachel Maddow, an anagram and a fictional expert played an important part in his fledgling economic policies and in particular, the president's obsession with tariffs. This time, the book in question was written by a man named Peter Navarro, and the controversy is as spellbinding as any Harry Potter adventure. Grab your wands, and let's get into it.

This all started back in 2015 when Trump was running for president the first time. He had little-to-no experience in politics, so Trump told his son-in-law to "find him an economic advisor," said Rachel with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Jared Kushner is a businessman and investor, so it makes perfect sense that he would be called upon to hunt down someone who is an authority in the area.

Unfortunately, Jared did something that most of us might do if tasked with something we knew nothing about. Jared's father-in-law gave him some vague parameters about China and looking tough, which he used to search for authors on Amazon. As Rachel noted, Jared wasn't interested in reading these books, he just wanted an author who wrote a financial book that Trump might like. Insert Death by China, which was co-authored by Peter Navarro, whom Jared immediately called.

Peter is an economist who, according to Rachel, is also a "well-known trade deficit hawk." Unable to pass up this opportunity, Peter agreed to join Trump's team as an "economic advisor" who advocated for "aggressive tariff policies." Evidently, Peter got these ideas from a man named Ron Vara, who he frequently cites in his books. This is where the Tom Marvolo Riddle of it all comes into play.

Peter believed that tariffs were a great economic policy thanks to Ron Vara, the expert he mentions in six of his books, including Death by China. "In all of his books, Peter has cited an economics expert to justify all of his views," says Rachel. After Trump won, Ron emailed a memo to prominent people in Washington, D.C. in which he really talked up the tariffs. This email address belonged to Ron Vara, per The New York Times.

Unfortunately for the entire global economy, Ron Vara doesn't exist. It turns out Ron Vara is an anagram for Navarro, and the enchanted diary was several cited sources in Peter's books. "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," explains Rachel. We're gonna need a really big Patronus for this one.