Jamieson Greer, the architect of Trump’s trade overhaul

On Jan. 26, 2025, Jamieson Greer was teaching Sunday school to 9-year-olds when his phone began ringing with calls from the White House. Six days into the new administration, President Trump was threatening Colombia with tariffs, and Mr. Greer—then already advising the president—had been flying to Mar-a-Lago in the weeks before to help plan trade policy.

“I have a kind of crazy job,” he told a student who asked why he carried two phones. As U.S. trade representative, the 45-year-old former military lawyer has worked quietly to reshape the rules governing global commerce. He has supplied legal and policy frameworks that helped raise tariffs to their highest levels in nearly a century while negotiating initial arrangements with dozens of countries.

A committed believer in using tariffs to revive U.S. manufacturing, he has said, “What the president has done is amazing. He has restructured global trade.” Those moves have not been without controversy.

United States, Mar-a-Lago

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