Which Trump Crony Said It?

How well do you know the people who make up the Trump Administration? We’ve got a quiz to help you find out. Plus:

An illustration of Navarro suspiciously looking at a map of China.

As an economist, Navarro wrote that retaliatory tariffs are how “trade wars are born.” He now backs Trump’s trade wars.Illustration by Barry Blitt

Erin Neil
Newsletter editor

The supporting cast of Donald Trump’s Presidency is made up of conspicuous strivers and ruthless operators. The economist Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser, might be a little bit of both. He is “the template for the Cabinet secretaries who now wait in line to flatter Trump in long, televised White House meetings,” Ian Parker writes in a profile of Navarro for this week’s issue. He is also one of very few people who has worked for the President during both terms. “Long-term service to Trump,” Parker notes, “requires both egomania and its opposite: self-annihilation.”

As the President’s first year back in office winds down, we’re reflecting on the individuals who shaped our politics in 2025—many of whom were reported on extensively in The New Yorker. We thought, in the spirit of healthy holiday competition, we’d test how well you know the characters of the second Trump Administration.

Below you’ll find quotes, written and spoken, from the following Trump Administration officials and allies: the Attorney General, Pam Bondi; the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick; the conservative influencer Laura Loomer; the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought; the congresswoman Lauren Boebert; the director of the F.B.I., Kash Patel; and, of course, Peter Navarro. Your job is to match the quote with the person who said it. The answers will be revealed at the bottom of this newsletter. (No cheating!)

“ ‘Tariffs’ is the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary.”
“I don’t want to say, ‘Oh, President Trump is me,’ or, ‘I see myself in Trump.’ But I do. I mean, I do.”
“The problem was my personality.”
“The swamp, they thought I would fail!”
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected.”
“The F.B.I. tried to put the President in jail, and he hasn’t forgotten it.”
“President, your first one hundred days has far exceeded that of any other Presidency in this country, ever, ever.”

Read the profile of Peter Navarro »

Editor’s Pick

Bndicte Savoy leaning against a wall and looking directly at the camera.

Bénédicte Savoy at the Museumsinsel Berlin, in Germany.Photograph by Peter Rigaud / laif / Redux

The Burgled Louvre’s Stolen-Art Expert

Bénédicte Savoy is Europe’s leading advocate for the repatriation of cultural heritage. Now, in the wake of a shocking heist, she’s bringing her ideas to the Louvre. “The main takeaway, for me, is that museums have a vulnerability,” Savoy tells Julian Lucas, “that is mirrored by the vulnerability of the public’s reaction, the idea that you can be culturally wounded in a profound collective manner.” Read the interview »

Daily Cartoon

“If we lose one more high-level marketing exec to another small-town Christmas-tree farmer, we’re toast.”

Cartoon by Tyson Cole

Puzzles & Games

The Holiday Crossword: Today’s theme—2025 in literature.
Shuffalo: Can you make a longer word with each new letter?
Laugh Lines: Test your knowledge of classic New Yorker cartoons.

P.S. Answers to the quiz above: No. 1, Howard Lutnick; No. 2, Laura Loomer; No. 3, Peter Navarro; No. 4, Lauren Boebert; No. 5, Russell Vought; No. 6, Kash Patel; No. 7, Pam Bondi. How’d you do?

RETRUI