How did we get here?

Donald Trump tanked the economy based on a book his son-in-law found on Amazon.

He told Jared Kushner to find him an economic advisor—someone who could make him “look tough” and talk tough on China. Jared searched Amazon, saw a book called Death by China, and thought the title was “cool.” So he cold-called the author, Peter Navarro, and gave him a job.

Navarro had no real economic credibility—just an obsession with tariffs and a made-up expert named “Ron Vara” whom he cited repeatedly in his books.

Who’s Ron Vara? A fictional economist Navarro invented. It’s an anagram of his own name.

This is not a joke. This is literally how the Trump administration created its trade policy—one that wiped out $11 trillion in wealth, crashed markets, and is nearly sending the world into another Great Depression.

A fake expert. A book cover. An Amazon search.

That’s it. That’s how we got here.