Trump says tariffs for Mexico, Canada, and China to go into effect next week – live
Trump says Mexico and Canada tariffs will go into effect next week
Donald Trump said his administration would move forward with imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada next week, a policy that could cause prices to rise in the US.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump blamed Mexico and Canada for allowing illegal drugs to flow into the US and confirmed that the delayed tariffs would go into effect next Tuesday.
“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
He added, “China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date. The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect.”
Trump had previously called for imposing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but he delayed the policy by one month after speaking to the leaders of the two nations.
As the AP reports, “The prospect of escalating tariffs has already thrown the global economy into turmoil — with consumers expressing fears about inflation worsening and the auto sector possibly suffering if America’s two largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico are slapped with taxes.”
Key events
The Senate will convene this morning, and this afternoon, the chamber will hold a key procedural vote on the nomination of Linda McMahon to be the next secretary of education.
Given Republicans’ 53-47 advantage in the Senate, McMahon, founder of the World Wrestling Entertainment, is likely to be confirmed, even as she has voiced agreement with Donald Trump’s suggestion to shutter the department of education.
“President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs,” McMahon wrote in a letter responding to two Democratic senators’ questions. “I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission.”
Senator Andy Kim, a Democrat of New Jersey, framed McMahon’s response as a clear warning of how she would undermine the department’s mission and harm American families.
“Linda McMahon has made clear her top responsibility is complete and total loyalty to President Trump, including her openness to dissolve the very department she would be confirmed to run,” Kim wrote.
“As the administration’s illegal funding freeze threatens already scarce resources for schools and critical programs, her blind loyalty is dangerous. Instead of treating education as a public good that is a foundation for our society, the Trump administration is trying to demonize it and change it in ways that will leave many children vulnerable. We cannot let them.”
Tariffs on Mexico and Canada are broadly unpopular with the American people, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month.
The poll found that 35% of Americans support imposing a 25% tariff on most products from Mexico, while 59% of Americans oppose it. About 3 in 10 Americans, or 31%, support imposing a 25% tariff on most products from Canada, and 64% oppose it.
Tariffs on China are more popular, with 50% of Americans supporting a 10% increase in tariffs on most of the country’s products.
Donald Trump indicated his plans to move forward with the tariffs on Mexico and Canada during his cabinet meeting at the White House yesterday.
“I’m not stopping the tariffs,” Trump told a reporter. “Millions of people have died because of the fentanyl that comes over the border.”
“Even with the 90% drop in border crossings though, this last month compared to about a year ago?” the reporter asked.
Trump replied, “Yeah, they’ve been good, but that’s also due to us – mostly due to us. It’s right now very hard to come through the border, but look: the damage has been done. We’ve lost millions of people due to fentanyl. It comes mostly from China, but it comes through Mexico, and it comes through Canada.”
Trump predicted the consequences of the tariffs would be “amazing,” adding, “We’ve been taken advantage of, as a countrty, for a long period of time.”
Trump says Mexico and Canada tariffs will go into effect next week
Donald Trump said his administration would move forward with imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada next week, a policy that could cause prices to rise in the US.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump blamed Mexico and Canada for allowing illegal drugs to flow into the US and confirmed that the delayed tariffs would go into effect next Tuesday.
“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
He added, “China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date. The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect.”
Trump had previously called for imposing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but he delayed the policy by one month after speaking to the leaders of the two nations.
As the AP reports, “The prospect of escalating tariffs has already thrown the global economy into turmoil — with consumers expressing fears about inflation worsening and the auto sector possibly suffering if America’s two largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico are slapped with taxes.”
The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, criticized Donald Trump for jeopardizing Americans’ retirement benefits in response to reports that the Social Security Administration has shuttered offices and put hundreds of employees on leave.
“Social Security is an earned benefit. Every day, every month and every year, hardworking Americans have paid into Social Security in order to retire with grace and dignity,” Jeffries said in a new statement.
“Enabled by House Republicans, the Trump administration is putting Social Security benefits at risk by firing the staff who help beneficiaries and closing down the offices that serve communities across the country.”
Jeffries praised the Social Security program as a “critical lifeline for older Americans and people with disabilities,” accusing Republicans of gutting their constituents’ benefits to advance tax cuts for “their super rich donors and big corporations”.
“President Trump, Elon Musk and House Republicans must keep their hands off Social Security,” Jeffries said. “Any bipartisan spending agreement has to protect the administration of these earned benefits.”
The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, is forcefully pushing back against Democrats’ warnings that his budget blueprint will result in drastic cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income families.
“It is merely a framework to set up what will come the reconciliation process,” Johnson told CNN last night. “It’s going to take us five or six weeks, probably, to dig through all those details and come up with the final proposal. So, everybody just reserve judgment, watch us work, and you’ll like the final product.”
Johnson noted that the blueprint bill does not mention the word “Medicaid,” and he accused Democrats of needlessly spreading alarm across the country.
“That is not part of this equation. We’re talking about finding efficiencies in every program but not cutting benefits for people who rightly deserve that,” Johnson said.
However, the budget blueprint does instruct the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut at least $880bn in government spending through 2034, and most of those cuts are expected to come from Medicaid.
“The House Republican budget resolution will set in motion the largest Medicaid cut in American history,” the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said Tuesday.
“It’s outrageous. Children will be devastated. Families, devastated. People with disabilities, devastated. Older Americans, devastated. Hospitals, devastated. Nursing homes, devastated.
“The reckless Republican budget will cut taxes up to $4.5tn for the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected, and then they are sticking working-class Americans, middle-class Americans and everyday Americans with the bill.”
Trump to decide tariff policies after study published on 1 April
Donald Trump will decide on tariff policies after a study comes out on 1 April, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNBC in an interview on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Ontario heads to polls for snap election in face of looming Trump tariffs
Voters in Canada’s most populous province head to the polls on Thursday to elect a new premier who may have to face the task of preserving Ontario’s economy in the face of punishing US trade tariffs.
Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservative party leader who has been the province’s premier since 2018, called the snap election last month, arguing that he needs a “strong mandate” to steer the province through any trade war with the US.
Ford’s opponents have argued the vote is a cynical move to distract attention from an ongoing criminal probe into how his government handled a now-rescinded plan to develop on protected lands.
Lydia Miljan, a political science professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario, said Ford had likely already been planning an election for several months.
Read the full report here:
Trump is using the presidency to seek golf deals. Hardly anyone’s paying attention
Mohamad Bazzi
In his first month in office, Donald Trump destroyed federal agencies, fired thousands of government workers and unleashed dozens of executive orders. The US president also found time to try to broker an agreement between two rival golf tournaments, the US-based PGA Tour and the LIV Golf league, funded by Saudi Arabia.
If concluded, the deal would directly benefit Trump’s family business, which owns and manages golf courses around the world. And it would be the latest example of Trump using the presidency to advance his personal interests.
On 20 February, Trump hosted a meeting at the White House between Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, and Yasir al-Rumayyan, chair of LIV Golf and head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, along with the golf star Tiger Woods. It was the second meeting convened by Trump at the White House this month with PGA Tour officials involved in negotiating with the Saudi wealth fund.
A day before his latest attempt at high-level golf diplomacy, Trump travelled to Miami to speak at a conference organized by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is managed by Al-Rumayyan but ultimately controlled by the kingdom’s de facto ruler and crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump’s sports diplomacy in the Oval Office and cozying up to Saudi investors in Miami did not get much attention compared with his whirlwind of executive orders and new policies. But these incidents encapsulate Trump’s transactional and corrupt approach to governing – and the ways that wealthy autocrats including Prince Mohammed will be able to exploit the US president. While Trump will often boast he is making good deals for the US, his relationship with Saudi Arabia and its crown prince is largely built on benefits for Trump’s family and its extensive business interests.
You can read the full report here:
Putin says first contacts with US inspire hope
Vladimir Putin told the FSB security service on Thursday that initial contacts with the administration of Donald Trump gave grounds for hope, Reuters is reporting.
The Russian president said in televised comments that Russia and the United States were ready to establish cooperation but some Western elites would seek to undermine the dialogue between them.
French finance minister Eric Lombard said on Thursday that the European Union would “do the same” if the United States maintains 25% tariffs announced by Donald Trump, Agence France-Presse reports.
On the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting in Cape Town, Lombard said:
It is clear that if the Americans maintain the tariff hikes, as President Trump announced, the EU will do the same.
Even if it is not in the general interest, we too must protect our interests and the interests of the countries of the Union.
Diplomats from the G7 countries spoke to Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, on Thursday morning, telling him that “tariff wars lead to inflation, lower growth and are not a solution”, Lombard said.
Bessent did not travel to Cape Town for the G20 talks, but attended the G7 meeting virtually.
“Minister Bessent told us that negotiations would start on April 2,” Lombard said, adding the EU would “represent the European countries with the aim of reaching a fair agreement”.
