Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday pledged to “immediately” impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican exports to the United States if the government of Mexico doesn’t stop what he called an “onslaught” of criminals and drugs to the U.S.
To act on his threat, the former U.S. president will, of course, have to beat Democratic Party candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s election.
“We’re being invaded by Mexico,” Trump said during a rally in Raleigh, the capital of the swing state of North Carolina.
“But now we have a new president of Mexico. Supposed to [be] a very nice woman, they say. I haven’t met her. And I’m going to inform her on day one or sooner that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send into the United States of America,” he said.
“… You’re the first ones I’ve told it to. Congratulations North Carolina. And it’s only got a 100% chance of working because if that doesn’t work I’ll make it 50 [percent],” Trump said.
“And if that doesn’t work I’ll make it 75 for the tough guys, then I’ll make it 100,” he said.
Election Eve sunrise in Raleigh. Trump rally today, his third day in a row in North Carolina. pic.twitter.com/01xMTIKmoK
— Dawn B. Vaughan (@dawnbvaughan) November 4, 2024
Trump’s latest tariff threat comes after he made repeated promises to slap hefty duties on vehicles made in Mexico.
Tariffs on Mexican exports to the U.S. would contravene provisions in the USMCA, but Trump appears to have no qualms about violating the three-way trade pact, and has pledged to renegotiate it if he returns to the White House.
While president in 2019, he threatened to impose a 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico if the Mexican government didn’t do more to stem migration to the United States. The two countries subsequently reached a deal that averted the blanket tariffs and resulted in Mexico deploying federal security force members to both its southern and northern border.
During this presidential campaign, Trump has suggested he would impose 20% tariffs on imports from all of the United States’ trade partners, a plan that economists say would significantly increase prices for U.S. consumers.
According to The Washington Post, tariffs on Mexico’s exports to the United States “would amount to a multitrillion-dollar tax on purchasers of Mexican-made goods.”
Mexico is the largest exporter of goods to the United States, passing China to seize the top position in 2023.
The Post reported that “even a 25% tariff” on Mexican goods would “undermine” the USMCA, which Trump signed, and “translate into a roughly $100 billion annual tax — and more than $1 trillion over the next decade.”
Such a tariff would “invite retaliation from Mexico’s government,” the newspaper said.
Trump’s ‘onslaught of criminals and drugs’ claim
While the number of migrants arriving at the United States southern border hit record highs during Joe Biden’s presidency, encounters between migrants and U.S. authorities have declined significantly since Biden enacted a new border policy in June.
In September, there were 53,900 encounters between U.S. authorities and migrants between ports of entry on the Mexico-U.S. border, a 75% annual decrease, according to Customs and Border Protection.
Trump has spoken about various crimes committed or allegedly committed by migrants to support his claim that the United States is being inundated with criminals.
However, studies show that immigrants are not more likely to engage in criminality than other people, Reuters reported earlier this year.
“A range of studies by academics and think tanks have shown that immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans,” the news agency said in July.
“A more limited universe of studies specifically examine criminality among immigrants in the U.S. illegally but also find that they do not commit crimes at a higher rate,” Reuters said.
With regard to drugs, it is common knowledge that huge amounts of narcotics enter the United States from Mexico, many of which are manufactured here by Mexican cartels. Among the illicit substances shipped north from Mexico are cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and increasingly fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid largely responsible for the overdose crisis in the United States.
Still, in response to a tariff threat from Trump, the administration led by President Claudia Sheinbaum could conceivably argue that Mexico is already making significant efforts to stop illegal drugs and migrants crossing into the United States.
Federal officials made that argument during the previous term of government, with former foreign affairs minister and current Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard describing Mexico as “the United States’ main ally in the fight against fentanyl.”
Indeed, the Mexican government seized a record amount of fentanyl during former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s six-year term, an achievement acknowledged by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this year.
Furthermore, undocumented migrants traveling through Mexico are often detained and subsequently deported or transferred back to the south of the country, even as the government defends people’s right to seek asylum.
With reports from The Hill and The Washington Post
Here’s hoping he goes down bigly! 🙏
He must have missed basic math in 5th grade. Can you imagine the price of avocados for the Super Bowl 2025? That seems to be an issue for MAGA people rather than healthcare and basic math and science instruction.
Hope the only Big House he goes to has bars and guards and tall walls with concertina wire on top.
talking about criminals
Let’s see, would that 25% tariff also apply to Elon Musk’s autos that are being manufactured in Mexico instead if being made in the US? Ih, you mean Musk wouldn’t have to pay that tariff? Ok, we all see how this works.
What a buffoon.
What a fkn idiot…
The extremely sad and scary fact that 45 million plus of our neighbors in the US would vote for such a vile mentally unfit sociopath leaves me with no words that can truly describe the angst most will live with going forward. These same people existed before he ran in 2016 but he gave them the ability to come out from under their rocks to fully display their racism and hate. Even if Kamala wins, those in the shadows will continue to walk amongst us until the next fascist announces himself. This is the sad state of affairs this one individual has wrought.
Indeed!🤕
Unfortunately, truer words have never been spoken. I doubt very much, with how many people have made hate & ignorance commonplace, that the world as we know it lasts 20 years. Russia, China, No. Korea, and Iran are joining forces, AI has made it so you cannot believe anything you see or read. Technology is making humans obsolete. We destroy the environment and kill off species at an alarming rate. The wealth gap. Every intelligent society has plateaued and died off. The Aztecs, Mayans, Romans… all once great civilizations/empires, wiped off the face of the Earth and a more intelligent society rises from the ashes. I believe the time is coming for the next great reset. Even if Trump went away, the Republicans see how his vitriol resonates with a certain part of society. I expect Trump will win the election and only embolden the ignorant and racist among us. We are living in sad times.
The only positive in this maelstrom of insanity is that maybe Mexico will benefit with an invasion of the KINDER type who long for the beauty and compassion here and to be allowed to be guests and live in Mexico. I vomit when I look at my country. I feel like apologizing, but remember, it is mostly a minority of very ugly despicable and MISLEAD cult members. I don’t think Herr Trump will be with us much longer. And after the rhetoric, we can dial it back. I pray. To the MAGA F’ers living here now? Please go back. You make me ill. You want the best of both worlds. And one more, The USA does not help Mexico by allowing all these military weapons to come south across the border. Trump – El Diablo. Many of us whom are permanent residents know it. Peace.
Trump and all Americans have had it with the flow of Mexican drugs and the activity of brutal sex trafficking cartels and drug mules . If Trump prevails, the wall will be completed with high tech along with an empowered border patrol, and bring a good deal of this to a halt. So will a mass deportation of criminals in the states illegally. The threat of tariffs is posturing; a powerful bargaining tool. Not that he’s shooting blanks. But hoping the tariff talk will inspire Mexico to work in conjunction with the U.S. to defeat the blight the bad guys have inflicted on both nations . While
no country should tell another country how to behave, they also can’t stand by be continually damaged due in
part to lame policies or no policies to end the reign of cartels . Trump is for sure, unconventional. Not politically correct. Instead, he proved to be incredibly effective . If you don’t like the guy, that’s fine. But in the end, his strength and conviction can go along way to rid Me I I and America of this blight
have an invasion here , and he has a right to lobby for cooperation, albeit in an overly aggressive way to enlist Mexicos support . If all this fails, I do believe he will declare the cartels as terrorists, and have the courage, which Amlo never did, to send in our troops and eliminate them.
Well-articulated and I agree 100%.
I am amazed at the number of people that are “freaking” out over Trumps statements about tariffs. This man is not an idiot when it comes to economics, no matter what his detractors say about him due to their personal dislike of him. This talk from Trump serve two purposes. It rev’s up his supporters, it is a “hot” button in the U.S. folks. It also is a precursor to him getting elected that starts his form of negotiation, the carrot or the stick. If you read in the authors article he did this with AMLO and low and behold AMLO caved in and came to a mutual agreement with Trump.
He most certainly is an idiot when it comes to economics 😉😂
Have any of Trump supporters done the math on the cost of a true border wall that is insurmountable? When he built the first test wall, these kids had a contest to see who can get over it the fastest. I think the winner did it in three minutes. Has he ever heard of tunnels? It was easy for East Germany to construct a barrier the entire length the the country. That was about as big as 3% Of our border. The fact is someone who is articulate could support Trump is an example of , the fear that is a reality in so many aspects of the future of the world. That is driving people to hope for a dramatic change by Voting for him.
Maybe it is time for Mexico to take responsibility for its side of the border and stop being a willing accomplice to the Democrat flooding of the U.S. with illegals. On our last return trip from NM, we passed trains headed north with hundreds of illegals on top of them. A responsible neighbor would have stopped those trains and sent those people back to where they came from. Instead Mexico expedites the traffic and assists the drug cartels in human smuggling.
Americans are fed up with it and Trump is addressing that concern. He is going to win this election and Claudia had better listen up and put a stop to Mexico’s enabling of illegal immigration into the U.S. I guarantee if this was going in the opposite direction most of the above posters and the Mexican government would be screaming bloody murder.
All of you are a pack of hypocrites.