Biden slams Trump for counterproductive tariff threat against Mexico and Canada

Retiring President Biden told reporters Thursday that he disapproves of President-elect Donald Trump’s “counterproductive” threat to slap tariffs on Canada and Mexico if they don’t take action to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration across the US border.“I hope he rethinks it.I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do,” Biden, 82, said while paying a Thanksgiving visit to a fire station on Nantucket, where he’s vacationing at billionaire David Rubenstein’s home.“We’re surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and two allies, Mexico and Canada.

The last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships.”Biden also said that he hopes the presidential transition goes “smoothly” and mused that “all the talk about what [Trump] may do or not do — I think there may be an internal reckoning on his part.”Trump, 78, issued his threat of a 25% tariff on all Canadian and Mexican imports Monday — while issuing a similar 10% tariff threat against China, which is the primary source of the potent synthetic opioid.The threat was widely understood by Trump’s allies to be a bargaining tactic — and he said Wednesday that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum phoned him to pledge to work together on the issues.Sheinbaum “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.We also talked about what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States, and also, U.S.

consumption of these drugs.It was a very productive conversation!” Trump wrote on social media.Fentanyl killed more than 223,000 Americans during Biden’s first three years in office as the compound was increasingly cut into non-opioid drugs like cocaine and counterfeit prescriptions, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.The staggering toll amounts to nearly one in every thousand Americans dying from fentanyl in Biden’s four-year term, wit...