On Friday night, Rachel Maddow recounted how Peter Navarro, Trump's trade advisor in his first and second administrations, invented a fictional economics expert for his books who pushed tariffs as the key to the United States' future prosperity.

Source: The Wrap

To say the origins of Trump’s sweeping international tariffs are dubious is an understatement, Rachel Maddow said on her MSNBC show on Friday night as she outlined exactly how we got here. Trump “came up with the idea” after the circulation of a “fake memo from a fake person with a fake email address,” she explained.

The memo in question was the brainchild of author and economist Peter Navarro — also the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing for the administration — who entered the Trump sphere after Jared Kushner found his book “Death by China” and asked him to join Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign as an economic adviser.

In his books, Maddow continued, Navarro often cited the work of a so-called economics expert named Ron Vara. “V-A-R-A, Ron Vara,” Maddow said. “Vara” shared a memo in Washington D.C. circles after Trump won the presidency

“At one point, Ron Vara wrote in the memo that Trump could, quote, ‘Ride the tariffs to victory,'” Maddow said. The problem is, Ron Vara doesn’t exist. He never has. The economics expert that Peter Navarro has long cited to explain why he’s so gung-ho on tariffs, this person, Ron Vara, is a made-up person.”

“He is a fictional person. Peter Navarro invented Ron Vara as his expert source, so he could quote this expert source over and over and over again in his crackpot books,” she continued. “Who is Ron Vara? Ron Vara is an anagram of Navarro, which is his last name.”

“I mean, my name anagrams to Macho Wattler, but I don’t see myself trying to talk you into doing what Macho Wattler wants, right?” Maddow said.

Rachel helpfully provided this animation for us.

And a shorter version of the video above. The full segment was over 12 minutes.