Jamieson Greer, a low-key lawyer from a working-class background, is rewriting the rules of the global economy at the president’s behest.
On Jan. 26, 2025, Jamieson Greer was teaching Sunday school to a group of 9-year-olds when one of his phones started blowing up with calls from the White House. Six days into the new administration, President Trump was already deploying his favorite weapon: the threat of crippling tariffs to bend countries to his will.
This time, the president was threatening Colombia, after it refused to accept U.S. military planes of deported immigrants. Mr. Greer would not join the Trump administration for some time yet, but he was already a key adviser on trade, flying to Mar-a-Lago in the weeks before to help plan Mr. Trump’s agenda.
“Why do you have two phones?” a student asked him.
“I have a kind of crazy job,” Mr. Greer replied.
