Publishing company Pearson is attaching an addendum to books it sells by White House economic adviser Peter Navarro warning readers that the author has quoted a fictional character.
Navarro, 70, is known as President Trump’s “China muse” and has had a heavy hand in directing American trade policy. The Chronicle Review outed Navarro on Tuesday as having made up a fictional expert that he has quoted in multiple books on economics.
“Pearson has strict editorial standards that apply to all of its publishing businesses and authors. These standards are constantly evolving to ensure they remain rigorous and in line with current practices,” Pearson said in a statement following the revelation about Navarro’s books.
“We take any breaches of these standards very seriously and take swift action when one is identified. In this case, we are amending our current inventory and all future reprints and editions to alert readers that this book contains a fictional character,” Pearson said.
I wrote a story this week about how Peter Navarro, a Trump adviser, quoted a made-up character in his books. I just got an email from Pearson, which published his book Death by China. They’re not cool with what Navarro did. pic.twitter.com/jzX47O31T5
— Tom Bartlett (@tebartl) October 17, 2019
Navarro cites Harvard-trained economist Ron Vara in six books. Vara has been found to be a fictionalized person whose backstory is somewhat parallel to Navarro’s own life. Also, the name “Ron Vara” is an anagram of “Navarro.”
After Vara was identified as fake, Navarro shrugged off his use of the phony source as a “whimsical device.”
“At no time was the character used improperly as a fact source,” Navarro said. “It’s just a fun device.”
Navarro was one of the first people to join the Trump administration. President Trump appointed him to head the National Trade Council in December 2016.
