President-elect Trump has chosen as one of his closest advisers an economist whose early political career was marked by left-wing opposition to real estate development, work which made Trump famous.

Peter Navarro, Trump’s new White House trade czar, ran for mayor of San Diego in 1992 with the backing of the local Democratic machine. Four years later, Navarro ran for Congress as a Democrat, and received substantial support from Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee who was then the first lady.