Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick defended President Trump’s approach to tariffs, saying on Sunday the president is focused on stopping fentanyl from entering the country and is actively engaging with targeted countries to find common ground.
“This is the way you run the country,” Lutnick said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker. “You shut the border. You get our neighbors to do their job. It’s not only us who has to do their job. Why are our neighbors, who live and breathe off our economy, not taking care of America?”
After months of threats, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs went into effect this week against America’s neighbors to the north, marking a turning point in the relationship between the U.S. and two of its top trading partners.
But days later, Trump signed off on tariff exemptions for most imports from Canada and Mexico, delaying their implementation until April 2 — at which point the president plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign nations that have duties on U.S. imports.
Lutnick stressed the issue is about the flow of fentanyl.
“You have to remember this is a drug-related issue,” Lutnick said. “You’ve got fentanyl pouring into this country, killing 75,000 Americans, autopsied. And the president, you know, thinks it’s many, many more, multiples more.”
The Commerce secretary said it’s important for Trump to engage with other countries and defended the changes the president has made to his original tariff plan.
“It’s important for the president to talk to the leaders of both Canada and Mexico, get them to shut the border, shut the fentanyl coming into the country,” Lutnick said.
“And of course he’s going to be on the phone with them, and of course he’s going to talk to them. And he is a dealmaker, the greatest dealmaker in the world. So he makes better deals. He’s gotten the border closed. He’s gotten fentanyl to be shut down. He put tariffs on China who makes the precursors,” he said.
