White House says Trump’s Mexico, Canada, and China tariffs a go

Trump campaigned heavily on tariffs and threatened to implement them against Canada and Mexico on Inauguration Day, which was later pushed back to Saturday. The stated reason is that illegal drugs and migrants have been allowed to pour across the northern and southern borders, and Trump has not been satisfied with results after meeting with the presidents of those two countries in recent weeks.

China’s tariffs, while separate, are solely for what the Trump administration says is its role in trafficking fentanyl.

“For years and years, we’ve suffered with millions of criminals coming into our country,” Trump said later in the afternoon, explaining his rationale. “Criminals, people from jails, from all over the world, they come through Mexico, and they come through Canada too. A lot of them come through Canada, and a lot of fentanyl comes through Canada, and China makes the fentanyl.”

He said the tariffs were not being used as a negotiating tactic and that they could be coming for other countries as well.

“Am I going to impose tariffs on the European Union? Do you want the truthful answer or should I give you the political answer?” Trump said. “Absolutely. Absolutely. The European Union is treating us so terribly.”

He also floated tariffs for specific goods to come later in the month, including for computer chips, oil and gas, steel, and copper.

Ahead of the afternoon press briefing, news circulated that Trump would delay the tariffs again to March 1 and that there would be a process for the countries to seek exemptions. Leavitt said those reports are false.

“I was just with the president in the Oval Office, and I can confirm that tomorrow, the Feb. 1 deadline that President Trump put into place,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt did not have anything to add when asked about possible exemptions for oil imports but said details of the tariffs would be publicly available on Saturday.

The Democratic National Committee slammed the move in a statement, predicting it will reignite inflation.

“Donald Trump’s White House just confirmed that he’s ready to set off his ‘inflation bomb’ and skyrocket prices with a new $100 billion national tax,” DNC spokesman Alex Floyd said. “It’s not even his third week in office and Trump’s lies are already costing working families — breaking his empty campaign promises to lower prices.”

Leavitt argued that won’t be the case, pointing to an average 1.9% inflation rate during Trump’s first term.

“When President Trump left office, inflation was 1.4%,” she said. “President Trump is going to do everything he possibly can to cut the inflation crisis that the previous administration imposed on the American people. And he will continue to effectively utilize tariffs.”

She accused the media of looking at the issue “in a microscope” rather than in full context, saying Trump’s energy policies and other measures will grow the economy while keeping inflation low.

Trump often uses tariffs as a threat in order to try to implement changes to other policies, recently promising import duties on Colombia if that country would not agree to repatriate citizens who illegally entered the U.S. Colombia agreed to Trump’s terms within hours.

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The press secretary did not say how long the tariffs will be in place or what it will take for the three countries to remove them, but she reiterated that each has played a role in fentanyl and illegal immigrants flooding the United States.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is “ready with a response” to tariffs if Trump proceeds with them, and CNN reported that Canadian officials will be meeting Friday with Trump “border czar” Tom Homan in an effort to stave off the tariffs.