President Donald Trump will slap tariffs on neighboring Canada and Mexico tomorrow, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters – with an additional tariff going into place on China.
‘Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,’ Leavitt told reporters during her second press briefing at the White House.
She knocked down a reporter that Trump would leave himself wiggle room by imposing tariffs but not having them take effect until March 1.
‘I saw that report, and it is false,’ she said.
‘I was just with the President in the Oval Office, and I can confirm that tomorrow, the February 1 deadline that President Trump put into place that a statement several weeks ago continues, the President will be implementing tomorrow a 25% tariffs on Mexico, 25% tariffs on Canada, and a 10% tariff on China for the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country, which has killed tens of millions of Americans.’
She called the tariffs ‘promises made and promises kept by the President.’
‘Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,’ said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
She brushed off concerns that the tariffs might spike inflation for Americans who have finally seen prices come down and whether Trump would reverse them in that case.
‘That’s a hypothetical question, and the President is intent on ensuring that he effectively implements tariffs while cutting inflation and costs for the American people,’ she said.
She spoke hours after Trump once again said the U.S. doesn’t ‘need’ Canadian exports like lumber or cars that U.S. companies manufacture across the border.
Trump said Thursday that he would meet with his advisors to decide whether the tariffs would apply to oil – which impacts products across the board.
‘Oil is going to have nothing to do with it as far as I’m concerned’ Trump said when questioned about it.
Trump spoke about the tariffs Thursday, complaining about the flow of migrants and fentanyl
Leavitt brushed off questions raising concerns about whether the tariffs would spike inflation for Americans or provoke an ongoing trade war
Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. does not need imports from Canada, which sends cars manufactured by U.S. automakers south along with lumber and agricultural products
‘We’re going to make that determination probably tonight on oil. Because they send us oil, we’ll see – it depends on what their price is.’
Trump campaigned on the tariffs as a way to boost U.S. production and prevent the country from getting ‘ripped off’ by other nations.
But according to an analysis by the Peterson foundation, the tariffs would ‘slow growth and accelerate inflation in all three countries’ in North America.
‘For the duration of the second Trump administration, US GDP would be around $200 billion lower than it would have been without the tariffs. Canada would lose $100 billion off a much smaller economy, and at its peak, the tariff would reduce the size of the Mexican economy by 2 percent relative to its baseline forecast,’ the group found.
Another analysis, by the Tax Foundation, concluded the ‘tariffs on Canada and Mexico alone would increase taxes by $958 billion between 2025 and 2034 on a conventional basis, amounting to an average tax increase of more than $670 per US household in 2025.’
With China included, that would amount to ‘an average tax increase of more than $830 per US household in 2025.’
The administration dismisses the idea that costs would accompany the tariffs, and Leavitt said Trump is committed to permenantly extending his 2017 tax cuts.
Trump on Thursday night attributed the tariffs to transnational challenges that the U.S. and other nations face: illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs.
He said he was imposing them ‘for a number of reasons’ and said they ‘may or may not rise with time,’ indicating the 25% and 10% figures could be a floor.
‘No. 1 is the people that have poured into our country so horribly and so much,’ he said. ‘No. 2 is the drugs fentanyl and everything else that have come into the country, and No. 3 are the massive subsidies that we’re giving to Canada and Mexico in the form of deficits’ – in a reference to a trade imbalance.
Asked if she could guarantee the tariffs won’t spike inflation, Leavitt pointed to the past, when Trump slapped tariffs on China that remain. ‘Americans who are concerned about increased prices should look at what President Trump did in his first term. He effectively implemented tariffs and the average inflation rate during the first Trump administration was 1.9%,’ she said.
She also brushed off Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s comments that his country won’t relent until the tariffs are removed.
‘I don’t think so. I think the President is going to implement those tariffs tomorrow, and he will respond to Mr. Trudeau comments in due time, I am sure,’ she said, referencing an outgoing leader Trump has mocked as ‘governor’ while openly discussing acquiring Canada as the 51st U.S. state.
Trump said in zoom remarks to the World Economic Forum last week that Canada has been ‘very tough to deal with over the years.’
‘We don’t need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don’t need their lumber because we have our own forests, et cetera, et cetera. We don’t need their oil and gas. We have our — we have more than anybody,’ he said.
