Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Sunday that she knows that Mexican and Canadian leaders have their own “political environments” but that President Trump “means business” on tariffs.
“We all recognize that each one of these leaders has political environments in their home countries as well, but President Trump means business, and he meant it when he ran to be president of the United States again, and since he’s taken office, that he will put America first,” Noem told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”
Last week, the president imposed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico alongside an extra 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Trump cited irritation over the stream of fentanyl into his country, but experts have noted not much of the drug comes into the U.S. via its border with Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went after the Trump tariffs aimed at Canada on Tuesday, noting a Wall Street Journal editorial calling them “dumb.”
“Now, I want to speak directly to one specific American,” Trudeau said at the time. “Donald, in the over eight years you and I have worked together, we’ve done big things. We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of our countries.”
“We’ve done big things together on the world stage, as Canada and the U.S. have done together for decades, for generations. And now, we should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world.”
Later in the week, Trump went forward with tariff exemptions for imports from Canada and Mexico in line with a 2020 North American trade agreement.
On Sunday, Noem said that the president is “taking action to make sure that we’re cleaning up the mess that Joe Biden left behind and that we have a much safer country where Americans can look forward to the future.”
