White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett admitted that President Donald Trump was launching a “trade war” after insisting that tariffs against Mexico and Canada were part of a “drug war.”
During a Sunday interview on ABC’s This Week program, Hassett complained after the show referred to Trump’s “trade war.”
“I didn’t really think that the way you guys characterized the tariffs made sense to me, so I just want to go back to what happened,” he told host Jonathan Karl. “What happened was that we launched a drug war, not a trade war, and it was part of a negotiation to get Canada and Mexico to stop shipping fentanyl across our borders.”
“And so that drug war is something that’s been going on since really the beginning of the Trump administration,” Hassett argued, noting that the U.S. would also be launching “reciprocal” tariffs for countries that retaliate.
“You said Canada’s shipping fentanyl into the United States,” Karl noted. “I mean, I don’t think that’s happening. I mean, one percent of fentanyl is being smuggled across the border, one percent.”
Hassett pushed back by saying Canada was a “major source” of fentanyl without any proof.
“OK, but if you’re saying that this is an effort to make them crack down, and it’s worked,” Karl observed. “Then why are these tariffs going, the very same tariffs, going back into effect on April 2nd?”
“So what’s going on with the trade war is that we’re going to have reciprocal tariffs in April,” Hassett replied.
“So there IS a trade war,” Karl pointed out.
“In April, there’s going to be a reciprocal tariff,” Hassett explained. “But between now and then, the act that created the tariffs that you’re seeing in Canada and Mexico was 100 percent about progress in the drug war.”
Later in the program, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) called out Hassett.
“I was just listening to your guest precede me trying to explain that these tariffs, these on-again, off-again tariffs, are not about trade. It’s a drug war, and then — but next month it’s a trade war, but now it’s a drug war. It was incomprehensible,” Schiff said.
