Trying to catch up with this in light of all the tariffs being put into effect
Edit: I meant the claim about Mexico, Canada and China smuggling in fentanyl which is killing American citizens.
I’m sure that you can find a Canadian, Mexican, Chinese or whatever that had smuggled in fetanyl into the US and therefore you can consider it technically true. Not that it matters.
It’s meant to appeal to emotions to support whatever agenda he is trying to push.
He likes media attention and he is very good at manipulating media to talk about things he wants them to talk about.
If he said it, it’s a lie. Or at the very least 100% self serving. And I mean directly. He only puts effort into grift.
Even if it wasn’t a lie, you’d be better off treating the root cause of why people use drugs and providing safe spaces and testing kits for people who still want to use them. This is just an excuse to allow him to do what he was going to do anyway
Less than 50 lbs a year. It doesn’t make any sense to manufacture in Canada and move it across the border. It’s easier to import precursors and manufacture in the US. https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/us-canada-trade-fentanyl-fact-check/index.html
eta: thousands of pounds move from Mexico to the US. But it’s not a factor on the Northern border. Now if you could stop smuggling guns up here that’d be real nice.
Maybe Mexico/America has more of an issue, but Canada/America doesn’t. Insofar as I recall, both have taken proactive steps, which Trump apparently feels aren’t enough. I’m of the opinion that no steps would have been enough and he was just hellbent on doing his bullshit anyhow.
How true is Trump’s claim?
He lies about literally everything.
kinda related NPR.
this is just my headcanon, but in a more trump-ideal scenario:
- trump punishes fentanyl-sources mexico, canada and/or china with tariffs
- since fentanyl incidents are already in decline, it will still decline no changes
- trump declares win on fentanyl
- promotes his magic word tariffs based on win on fentanyl
- and somewhere along the way, people eat it up
Guaranteed they will claim victory no matter how much they lose. If they roll back tariffs after agreeing to exactly the same terms as before, they will still claim victory.
Weirdly, he isn’t worried about the Americans smuggling it in or manufacturing it here. It’s just those pesky other races. American Fentanyl is good for you; I hear RFK is recommending it over the Measles vaccine.
