BY EMMERSON LAYNE

On February 1st, President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on China. These tariffs were to be placed upon imported goods coming into the US. A couple of days later, Trump paused his plans for tariffs on Canada and Mexico, after negotiating plans to secure Canada’s and Mexico’s borders. The tariffs on China however remained intact. Canada and Mexico had planned retaliatory tariffs on America, but they have also paused those in the wake of the United States backing off their plans. China, however, has imposed tariffs on the imports of US goods. So what is all this mess? Why did Trump threaten to impose these tariffs? Well, let’s look at what a tariff is. 

A tariff is a tax imposed by a government on exported or imported goods. A company that imports or exports goods can pay for that tax, but typically consumers pay for that tax when they purchase those goods. So, let’s say, a tariff increases on an imported product, when a consumer pays that product they would have to pay more to cover that import tax. 

So why did Trump impose these tariffs? According to the White House’s website, Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China due to the stream of fentanyl and illegal immigrants entering the country. Trump also acknowledged on Sunday that Americans could feel “some pain” due to his tariffs and never directly acknowledged why he imposed his tariffs. According to the U.S Customs and Border Protection data in 2024, there were roughly 2 million encounters at the southern border of the US, while the number of encounters from the northern border were roughly 200,000. Also according to data from the U.S Customs and Border Protection from 2024, roughly 21,000 lbs of fentanyl was seized at the southern border, while at the northern border 43 lbs of fentanyl was seized. 

In response to the US’s tariff threats, Mexico made a temporary agreement with the Trump administration to send 10,000 officers of the Mexican national guard to the border. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump made a $1.3 billion border plan over the phone, which was created during the Biden administration by Canada, after Canada threatened to impose 25% tariffs on imported US goods. China imposed their own tariffs on goods imported from the US, also stating they were investigating Google on the suspicion that Google violated antitrust laws. Trump halted his tariffs plans on Canada and Mexico for 30 days.

Many Republicans, including Elon Musk, praised Trump for his leadership. On X, Musk suggested that Trump should be placed on Mount Rushmore, offering to carve it himself. While, yes, Trump is getting what he wanted, although this was going to happen anyway. In the past, Mexico sent troops to the border in 2019 and 2021, which the current Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, stated she was doing what her country has done before. As stated before, Canada has already created and planned to implement their $1.3 billion border plan. Ultimately, Trump enforced tariffs on countries that have done the same actions before or are implementing plans that were already made. 

Some interesting things to note is that Trump has thrown out the idea of making Canada the 51st state of the US, which Justin Trudeau quickly stated wasn’t going to happen. Trump says his reasoning for this is that he believes Canada gives nothing of value to the US, while Canada is one of the biggest trade partners to the US. 

So while Americans were frightened of the danger of increased prices of goods, Trump accomplished things that were already in the process of happening, on the reasoning of fentanyl and immigrants that were coming into the US. It’s a problematic start to Trump’s presidency as he puts the country on shaky terms with two of its closest allies.