Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump has announced his ex-aide Peter Navarro to serve as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing in his next administration.
Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist, served in Trump’s first administration, running a newly created National Trade Council and then the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Xinhua news agency reported.
“During my First Term, few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules, Buy American, Hire American,” Trump said on Wednesday on his social media platform Truth Social.
A staunch ally of the President-elect, Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison after a federal jury found him guilty of failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the Congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.
Shortly after being released in July, he made a speech at the Republican National Convention.
Trump said in his announcement that Navarro was “treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it”.
On Wednesday, Trump announced that Adam Boehler, currently CEO of the healthcare investment firm Rubicon Founders, will be his special envoy for hostage affairs.
Trump also nominated Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 who has led two private spaceflights, as the next administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and Daniel P. Driscoll, a US Army veteran and venture capitalist, to serve as the Secretary of the Army. Both positions would need Senate approval.
–IANS