U.S. President Donald Trump is keeping new tariffs in place on Mexico, Canada and China to pressure them to block the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, top White House economic officials said Sunday.
"If fentanyl ends, I think these [tariffs] will come off,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show.
“But if fentanyl does not end, or he’s uncertain about it, he will stay this way until he is comfortable,” he said. “This is black and white. You got to save American lives.”
Trump last week issued a string of whip-sawing tariff decisions that plunged the three major U.S. stock market indexes and roiled relations with Canada and Mexico, which are long-time U.S. allies and its closest neighbors, as well as its two biggest trading partners.
Reminder that according to the US government’s own figures, only 43lbs of fentanyl were seized at the Canadian border last year. That’s less than a single suitcase.
Reminder that Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the guy who ran silk road, a dark web site that traded in vast quantities of dangerous and illegal drugs, far, far greater than the amount flowing from Canada to the US.
Reminder that the only reason Trump can impose these tariffs without congress signing off is because they’re being imposed under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act which grants the president the authority to enact tariffs in response to a national emergency… Meaning Trump needs there to be an emergency in order to enact tariffs.
If you still think enjoy of this is about fentanyl you’re a fucking idiot.
They have seized more eggs from the Canada border than any drugs