President Joe Biden did little as fentanyl smugglers killed roughly 300,000 Americans on his watch, but President Donald Trump has quickly imposed painful tariffs on the countries that are helping those smugglers.
“I determined that the failure of the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to act to blunt the sustained influx of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, flowing from the PRC to the United States constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Trump declared in a March 3 order, which added:
In recognition of the fact that the PRC has not taken adequate steps to alleviate the illicit drug crisis, section 2(a) of Executive Order 14195 is hereby amended by striking the words “10 percent” and inserting in lieu thereof the words “20 percent”.
The order is titled “Further Amendment to Duties Addressing the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People’s Republicans of China.”
Trump also posted trade penalties against Mexico and Canada, where criminal gangs are producing more drugs for export to the United States.
The vast death toll from fentanyl — much of which is manufactured in Mexico from chemicals produced in China — is described in multiple government reports. Yet Biden’s countermeasures were tactical — and he put little or no pressure on Mexico and China to stop the killing.
In part, Biden’s deputies, including border chief Alejandro Mayorkas, prioritized trade deals with China and migration deals with Mexico. For example, in 2022, Biden’s deputies stayed mute when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) used his power over cross-border inspections to force modest concessions from four Mexican regional governments.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s efforts are opposed by pro-migration advocates who do not want to recognize the huge death toll. For example, Aaron Blake at the Washington Post wrote:
President Donald Trump’s long-promised tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico are due to go into effect Tuesday — this despite fears that the taxes on imports could cripple the economies of our two neighboring allies and negatively impact the U.S. economy as well by exacerbating inflation.
The New York Times wrote, “For American families, the likely result is higher prices nearly everywhere they turn — in grocery aisles, at car dealerships, at electronics stores and at the pump.”
The Wall Street Journal ignores the narcotics trade as it repeatedly slams Trump’s tariffs.
On February 2, Trump responded to the Wall Street Journal criticism:
The “Tariff Lobby,” headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA
China is also rejecting Trump’s focus on fentanyl:
Breitbart News has extensively covered the drug trade and its impact on Americans, and Trump’s lifesaving pushback.
“If we had Chinese troops lining up along our southern border with weapons aimed at our people, with weapons of mass destruction aimed at our cities, you damned well know you would do something about it,” Rebecca Kiessling, the mother of drug victim sons Caleb and Kyler, told a House hearing in March 2023. She continued:
But 100,000 die [Americans] every year, and nothing’s being done. Not enough is being done. Numbers are going up, not down. And you talk about [migrant] children being taken away from their parents. My children were taken away from me!
A 100,000 Americans a year — 200,000 because it’s both parents, right” — are having their children taken away from them!
This should not be politicized. It’s not about race. Fentanyl doesn’t care about race. You talk about welcoming those crossing our border “seeking protection.” You’re welcoming drug dealers across our border. You’re giving them protection. You’re not protecting our children. I’ve been in support groups on Facebook with there’s thousands of parents who have lost their children. Everyday faces are added. It’s dehumanizing, it’s demoralizing.
In the mid-1900s, the British Empire attacked China twice to expand its lucrative opium trade into China.
China’s weak government opposed the inflow of drugs but was forced by gunboats and soldiers to legalize drug dens. Chinese describe the subsequent years as the “Century of Humiliation.” A popular Chinese uprising — the Boxer Rebellion — against European domination was suppressed in 1901 with the aid of U.S. forces.
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