Part of President Donald Trump’s justification for imposing a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, which went into effect on March 4 (with a one-month delay for the auto industry announced on March 5), was the two countries’ supposedly lax enforcement of drug interdiction at the border, which Trump claimed was fueling the fentanyl crisis in the United States. The Trump administration, with a major assist from its propagandist allies at Fox News, attempted to rebrand the unnecessary trade war against America’s neighbors as a necessary step in a “drug war” against fentanyl while the administration spread misinformation about the crisis.
Trump accepted largely exaggerated concessions from Canada and Mexico to delay the implementation of tariffs for the past month, and repeatedly offered economic rationales to justify tariffs that economists say will hurt the U.S. economy. Trump’s administration also initiated policies that actually harm drug enforcement actions in the U.S., and Trump’s first administration failed to properly address the fentanyl crisis.