Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Donald Trump during his first term, will return to the White House in a similar role after spending four months in prison earlier this year for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

What You Need To Know

  • Peter Navarro will be returning to the White House as a trade adviser after spending four months in prison earlier this year for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol
  • Navarro served a four-month sentence after being found guilty of contempt of Congress charges for defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 panel

  • Trump also announced his picks for SEC chair, NASA administrator, White House counsel, deputy treasury secretary and other roles on Wednesday
  • And he wrote that he asked Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley to stay in his role

The president-elect made the announcement Wednesday in a series of social media posts outlining appointments and nominations for his next administration. Navarro, who was released from a federal prison in Florida in July, will serve as a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, Trump wrote.

Trump also nominated cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins was a commissioner for the SEC during the George W. Bush administration and will be tasked with leading the independent agency overseeing U.S. markets. 

The other announcements included nominating billionaire and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator, naming venture capitalist and first-term alumnus Adam Boehlerthe special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, and tapping Daniel Driscoll — an adviser and Yale Law School classmate to Vice President-elect JD Vance — to serve as secretary of the Army. Trump also wrote that he asked Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley to stay in his role.

“I am pleased to announce that Peter Navarro, a man who was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it, will serve as my Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing,” Trump wrote. “The Senior Counselor position leverages Peter’s broad range of White House experience, while harnessing his extensive Policy analytic and Media skills. His mission will be to help successfully advance and communicate the Trump Manufacturing, Tariff, and Trade Agendas.”

He also named veterans of his first administration to key positions in the Treasury, State and Justice departments. Michael Faulkender, a former assistant treasury secretary, was nominated to serve as deputy treasury secretary — the department’s second-highest role — under Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent. Former Fox News personality and assistant treasury secretary Monica Crowley was tapped to serve as assistant secretary of state and oversee major events in the coming years, including the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

And Gail Slater, a tech policy adviser who also worked with Vance in the Senate, will lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division as an assistant attorney general. 

David Warrington, a corporate litigator who served as the Trump 2024 campaign's general counsel, will come to Washington with the president-elect as White House counsel, the administration's top attorney. Trump had announced former Cabinet Secretary Bill McGinley as his White House counsel last month but said on Wednesday he was instead moving McGinley to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's government efficiency commission. 

Navarro was one of Trump's chief advocates in the media during and after his presidency but refused to comply with the congressional subpoena for his testimony on the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack. He was convicted of two counts of criminal contempt for Congress, and his appeals to delay his sentencing were rejected by the Supreme Court and an appeals court. 

Hours after being released from prison, Navarro spoke on stage at the Republican National Convention and told the crowd that “I went to prison so you won’t have to," echoing Trump’s rhetoric that his legal troubles and criminal prosecutions are manufactured by his political rivals.

“You may be thinking this couldn’t happen to you," Navarro told the crowd in July. "Make no mistake, they’re already coming for you. I’ve got a very simple message for you: If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful, they will come for you.”

In a separate post, Trump derided the Wall Street Journal for its coverage of Chad Chronister, a sheriff in Florida’s Hillsborough County, who withdrew his name from consideration to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration just days after being nominated by the president-elect. 

“The Wall Street Journal is becoming more and more obnoxious and unreadable. Today’s main headline is: ‘Trump’s DEA Pick Pulls Out In Latest Setback.’ With all that’s happening in the World, this is their Number One story of the day,” Trump wrote. “Besides, he didn’t pull out, I pulled him out, because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters.”

Chronister did not specify what caused him to withdraw from consideration on Tuesday, and Trump’s transition team did not immediately return a request for comment. But some of the president-elect’s supporters in and beyond Washington had expressed their dislike for Chronister based on his enforcement of public health orders during the first year of COVID-19 pandemic. The arrest of a pastor in the Tampa area in March 2020 drew particular denouncement.

Outgoing New York Rep. Anthony D’Esposito is lobbying to replace Chronister as the nominee to lead the DEA after he narrowly lost his reelection bid in November, members of his team told Spectrum News on Wednesday.

SEC chair, DEA administrator, NASA administrator, deputy treasury secretary, assistant attorney general for the antitrust division and secretary of the Army are positions that all require confirmation by the Senate. Navarro’s trade adviser role, Warrington's White House counsel appointment, and Boehlerthe’s hostage affairs role do not require Senate confirmation. Whatley, the current chair of the RNC, will have to be reelected next year by senior party members, but the president typically gets to choose his party apparatus’ leader.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.