Robert Lighthizer is a name that strikes fear into the hearts of diplomats. Plenty of seasoned foreign officials shudder as they recall bruising negotiations with Washington’s fearsome tariff zealot.
Lighthizer — known as Bob to his friends — was the US trade representative in Trump’s first-term cabinet. He went about the job, traditionally one of the more sedate, like nobody else. With his boss’s blessing, Lighthizer lit a fire under the global trading order — renegotiating US trade deals, attacking China and Europe with huge tariffs and railing against the World Trade Organization.
If it sounds familiar, it’s because Trump’s second term is the more intense second act to his first — at least as far as trade policy goes. But one character is missing: Lighthizer. Despite the fears of many trade diplomats in Washington, who swiftly convened crisis meetings when Trump won the election in November, Lighthizer fell by the wayside as Trump’s palace games unfolded over the winter months.