It took less than 48 hours and tumbling stocks for President Donald Trump to press pause on his tariffs against Canada and Mexico.
The tariffs, which went into effect on Tuesday, were widely criticized for their potential to hurt U.S. consumers by driving up the costs of goods and services.
Trump’s “deal” allows for a one-month pause on tariffs on automobile imports, which comes after car manufacturers sounded the alarm on the likelihood that Trump’s tariffs will result in price hikes that could increase the cost of a new car by as much as 25%.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed to have told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped.”
Cartoon by Clay Bennett
Trudeau has criticized the lie that Trump’s tariffs have much of anything to do with the fentanyl crisis, since so little of it is trafficked from Canada to the United States.
He also described Trump’s tariffs as “dumb” and pointed out the insanity of Trump instigating a trade war against Canada—a U.S. ally—while cozying up to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“Make that make sense,” Trudeau said during a press conference.
Unsurprisingly, Trump responded to Trudeau’s criticism with a post attacking Canada’s “Weak Border Policies, which allowed tremendous amounts of Fentanyl, and Illegal Aliens, to pour into the United States. These Policies are responsible for the death of many people!”
Just hours after Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress—in which he doubled down on his tariff plan—Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared on Fox News to downplay the extremity of Trump’s trade war.
“[Trump] hasn't decided this yet, so it's up to him. But he spoke to the big automakers yesterday,” he said.
This aligns with Lutnick’s previous claims that Trump was negotiating with Mexico and Canada and willing to “meet them in the middle.” He also alluded to the possibility of Trump lifting the tariffs entirely.
Another day, another Trump-created problem that Trump is going to heroically swoop in and fix.
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