Republicans love hiding behind fake names.
As the world focused on President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policies that have crashed international markets over the last week, trade advisor Peter Navarro has been busy trying to explain away the mess.
Navarro was involved in a very public feud with Trump benefactor Elon Musk, who questioned Trump’s market-killing decisions fueled by Navarro’s ideology. Musk even called Navarro a “moron.”
Another of Navarro’s names resurfaced during the intra-family fight: Ron Vara.
Ron Vara is an economic expert cited in Navarro’s books who agrees with Navarro’s pro-tariff ideas, while most economic experts on both the left and right do not.
In 2019, when Trump was preparing to launch his ultimately unsuccessful trade war against China, Navarro emailed a memo authored by Vara arguing in favor of tariffs.
But there’s just one problem: Ron Vara isn’t real. The name is an anagram of Navarro’s last name and a front he uses to launder his own ideas.
Strangely enough, this isn’t the only high-profile fake personality that has made waves on the right.
Former Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah revealed in 2019 that he used the name “Pierre Delecto” on a Twitter account where he attacked people who criticized him. He also used the account to “like” multiple tweets critical of Trump.
And Trump himself has used various fake personalities during his time in the public eye. Perhaps most infamously, Trump used the name “John Barron” to speak to journalists. He also took on the moniker “John Miller” to push tabloid stories about himself and his affair with actress Marla Maples.
The practice apparently was adopted from his father, Fred Trump, who used the fake name “Mr. Green” to conduct secret business in New York City.
The irony of all of these Republicans running around with fake identities is that the party—particularly leaders like Trump—is constantly leveling allegations of deception against Democrats.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Democrats are using fake identities as part of a massive “voter fraud” campaign to stuff ballot boxes and win elections, which is not true.
And Musk, too, has taken up this crusade lately.
Despite multiple opinion polls showing public opposition to his so-called Department of Government Efficiency attacking federal agencies, Musk has insisted that protests at Tesla dealerships are the work of paid protesters.
They aren’t. People just don’t like when billionaires attack their government.
And while the right is slinging these allegations, they’re guilty of the very crime in question.
When Trump first descended his golden New York escalator to announce his bid for president in 2015, he enlisted a group of paid actors to pose as his supporters.
And it escalated to the criminal level after he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, when pro-Trump forces organized slates of phony electors in Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia—states that Trump lost to Biden—to get votes in the electoral college for Trump.
It turns out that Ron Vara, Pierre Delecto, and John Barron aren’t outliers—they’re part of the Republican tradition of deception. And sometimes, these characters help them break the law.
