This MAGA ally can be Trump’s 'relatively competent lieutenant': columnist

One potential addition to President-Elect Donald Trump's administration is Peter Navarro — the former Trump official who served four months in prison earlier this year over his refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena in the January 6 investigation.

In an op-ed published by MSNBC Thursday, MSNBC Opinion writer and editor Zeeshan Aleem submits, "Navarro can serve as a relatively competent lieutenant — at least by Trump’s standards — while the president pursues his promised radical agenda on tariffs and China."

Furthermore, Aleem suggests, "He can also be trusted to help Trump undermine democratic institutions and sit in on top conversations with Trump that could potentially be legally incriminating — and not flip on his boss."

However, "policy knowledge and more buttoned-up appearance shouldn’t obscure the reality that he is very much a stick of Trumpian dynamite," the MSNBC writer emphasizes.

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The MAGA ally " became the first former White House official to be imprisoned for a contempt of Congress conviction," Aleem adds. "In other words, even though Trump didn’t come to Navarro’s rescue, Navarro went to jail refusing to say anything that might strengthen the case against Trump.

"I still have some principles. But not as many as you might think because I don’t have any concern at all about making stuff up about my opponent that isn’t exactly true," Aleem notes that "Navarro wrote in 1998 while reflecting on his many failed efforts to win public office."

Aleem concludes, "Perhaps the best illustration of the kind of figure Navarro is in Trump World — industrious, wonky, obedient — is that even when he was in prison this year for refusing to comply with an inquiry into his involvement in efforts to overturn the election, he was still working on detailed policy proposals for a future Trump administration."

Aleem's full op-ed is available here.