Trump Advisor Peter Navarro Accuses Tariff Critics of ‘Dishonoring’ the Men, Women, and Children Who Have Died of Fentanyl Overdose
Peter Navarro, a senior counselor to President Donald Trump, accused critics of Trump’s tariff policy of “dishonoring” the men, women, and children who have died of fentanyl overdoses in the United States during an appearance on Fox News’ America Reports Monday.
“The drug cartels make this stuff [fentanyl], off it goes on mules they’re sending up and around through Canada,” said Navarro. “Now, I am confident that if Mexico, China and Canada do, which is what was clearly within their capabilities to do, to stop that, it will stop. But if it doesn’t stop, President Trump will continue his relentless pressure to make sure that Americans stop dying.”
After anchor Sandra Smith pointed out that some conservatives have taken issue with Trump’s tariffs because Americans are “still living through historically high prices,” she asked Navarro if he could promise “this won’t eventually lead to an economic hit in the form of higher prices for American people.”
“What’s funny to me as an economist, Sandra, is if you go back to 2018, 2019, when the president, President Trump imposed historic tariffs on China — steel and aluminum, solar dishwashers, other products — those very same people, whether they’re on the Hill, or whether they’re in the think tanks, or whether they’re in the ivory tower, or whether they’re on the media, they all said the same thing. We were going to have inflation and recession! And guess what? We had neither. Neither! Neither!” replied Navarro. “And it’s because of how countries respond to tariffs as a rule. We are the biggest market in the world, they take advantage of us. We have the lowest tariffs, the lowest tariff barrier-, trade barriers of any, they flood our markets. What’s the first thing that happens when we raise tariffs? They lower their prices. And we saw no inflation and we saw no recession. We saw prosperity, a golden age, and that’s what we’re going to have.”
“And this is the first step,” he continued. “It’s a drug war, not a trade war. And anybody who’s talking about inflation right now is dishonoring, dishonoring the men, and women, and children who have died at the hands of Chinese, Mexican, Canadian fentanyl coming across our borders. That’s what this is about.”
In the 2024 fiscal year, U.S. border authorities seized 21,889 pounds of fentanyl in total with 21,148 of that coming at the Mexican border and just 43 coming at the Canadian border. Trump struck a deal with Mexico to delay the implementation of tariffs earlier today, but no such deal with Canada has been announced yet.
Watch above via Fox News.
