Peter Navarro, Paraphrasing Carl von Clausewitz, “Lawfare is Politics by Other Means.”

In an excellent, but not well-publicized talk at Hillsdale College in September 2024, Peter Navarro, one of President Trump’s advisors to be thown in prison following “lawfare” trials, states that he went to prison “in defense of the Constitution.”

Navarro, who has been named by President Trump to serve as his Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing in his upcoming Administration, spoke of Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz’s most famous quote (in his book On War or Vom Kriege) that, “War is a continuation of politics by other means,” and expanded it to says, “That’s what ‘lawfare’ is, ‘lawfare’ is politics by other means.”

He continued by referencing the famous quote from the ancient Chinese General Sun Tzu (in his book, The Art of War) that, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” observing that this quote epitomizes “the Democrat’s ‘lawfare’ strategy beause the modern verson of that is the ‘Supreme art of politics is to win an election without having an election.'”

Navarro was joined on the panel by Hillsdale Prof. Ronald J. Pestritto, who moderated the session, Capital University Law School Prof. Bradley Smith, and the Washington Examiner’s Byron York.

While this session was recorded before the re-election of President Trump, their comments are well worth the time, and this presentation is commended to your attention.