Canadian Sen. Patrick Brazeau challenged Donald Trump Jr. to a charity boxing match over the “bogus” tariffs implemented this week by his father, President Trump.
“I know, I still can’t believe it myself. But I no longer smoke and have been sober for almost 5 years,” the Quebec-based senator said in a Thursday post on X.
“In light of these bogus tariffs from President @realDonaldTrump from the U.S. onto Canada, I challenge you to a fight to raise money for cancer research or an organization of your choosing,” the senator added.
Brazeau lost to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a 2012 boxing match.
The senator’s challenge to Trump’s son comes as tensions between the U.S. and Canada have been simmering over the past few weeks.
The commander-in-chief imposed a 25-percent tariff on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, along with a 10-percent levy on Chinese goods. Trump said all three countries needed to do more to curb the amount of fentanyl coming over the border.
On Thursday, he said he was halting tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada covered under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The exemption is set to last until April 2. Tariffs on Canadian potash, a crucial fertilizer ingredient, would drop from 25 percent to 10 percent.
“That includes autos, and the autos were the lead in getting this done, but also Canada and Mexico have done a good job offering us ever more work to prove to us they’re going to cut the fentanyl deaths,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated.
Lutnick said that after April 2, “we’re going to move into the reciprocal tariff, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we’ll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation.”
Brazeau said on Thursday that Washington and Ottawa “don’t need to be at war but we can fight to raise money.”
He also argued that tariffs “have nothing to do” with the influx of fentanyl in the U.S.
“It has to do with our oil, freshwater, minerals, resources and our Arctic, just but to name a few,” the senator wrote.
