CNBC calls out Project 2025 contributor Peter Navarro for exaggerating threat of fentanyl at US-Canada border
Trump administration's tariff policy with Canada driven by “arbitrary” expectations
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From the February 3, 2025, edition of CNBC's Squawk Box
BECKY QUICK (CO-HOST): There's still so many questions about what metrics we're using to measure any of these things. Lindsey Graham, the senator, was speaking yesterday. And he said that border crossings are down 60%, illegal border crossings down 60% just in the last 10 days. I guess, do we have any idea how we'd be deciding, how we'd be determining any of these things?
MEGAN CASSELLA (CNBC CORRESPONDENT): It's really, really difficult to know. I mean, for example, they're always talking about fentanyl. And with respect to Canada, Peter Navarro said something over the weekend about seizing enough fentanyl from Canada from the northern border last year to kill thousands of people. The latest Customs and Borders Patrol data that I saw was that in the first nine months of last year, we had seized just 40 pounds of fentanyl from the northern border, compared to some 16,000 from the southern border.
So, it's hard to sort of put all of these on equal playing fields. It's why it's so interesting to talk to the White House about what they need to see. You know, they've said there's this council, it's going to involve the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, the domestic policy adviser inside the White House, a whole host of people who will decide whether some metrics are being met. They'll bring it to the president and then he'll decide whether to lift the tariffs. But it's hard not to think it's somewhat arbitrary at this point, because we haven't exactly seen a scorecard that they're looking at.