Peter Navarro's name is familiar to San Diegans who have been around awhile.
Many remember his several attempts at elected office. He ran for mayor in 1992 (Susan Golding won); for Congress in 1996 (Brian Bilbray won); and for a seat on the San Diego City Council in 2001 (Donna Frye eventually won).
He now lives in Laguna Beach, closer to his job as professor of economics at the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine.
Navarro has written several books about China — including "Made in China: The Ultimate Warning Label" and "The Coming China Wars — Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won." He believes his books attracted the attention of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Navarro has been called Trump's most influential economic advisor by some, and his opinions have generated heated arguments in the press and on cable talk shows.
He told KPBS Midday Edition that he doesn't see a disconnect between his past as a Democrat and his support for Trump.
"I've always considered myself a pragmatist, and it's been a difficult 15 years here in America in a bipartisan failure," he said.
Navarro said his political party is being "an economist."
"Trump has properly diagnosed what is wrong not just with the U.S. economy but the global economy," he said.
Navarro said he has not met Trump yet, but expects he will. He said he was OK with Trump being a messenger for his ideas.
"Sure he says things that make you say, 'oh, wow, he said that,'" Navarro said. But he said for some of Trump's ideas, such as banning Muslims from coming to the U.S., "you drill down on it, and what do we want 2,000 Syrian refugees coming into our country when the State Department can't properly vet them?"
He said some of those refugees could be terrorists who would want to attack San Diego.
