WASHINGTON — In Donald Trump’s mind, there is a “massive” amount of deadly fentanyl pouring into the country across the U.S. northern border with Canada.
In the real world, exactly 43 pounds of the deadly synthetic drug were seized at the U.S.-Canada border last year — two one-thousandths of the 21,000 pounds seized at the U.S.-Mexico border.
That disconnect illustrates succinctly the president’s approach to both the very real fentanyl problem and the nation’s trade relationships with our North American neighbors — an approach apparently based on his whims and the political expediency of the moment rather than facts and a coherent plan.
White House communications director Steven Cheung would not say why Trump was equating the fentanyl problem from Canada with the one from Mexico. He instead suggested that any amount of the drug entering from a foreign country was too much and might warrant retaliation.
“So you are saying there is an acceptable level of fentanyl?” he said. “Are you saying 40 pounds of fentanyl is acceptable? Because according to the DEA, two milligrams, equivalent to a few grains of salt, can kill someone.”
For months, Trump has been claiming that fentanyl from Canada required the imposition of punitive tariffs — only to later say that Canada deserved tariffs because it ran a trade surplus against the United States while simultaneously suggesting that the entire problem could be resolved if it agreed to become the 51st U.S. state.
This week, Trump backed down from his 25% tariff threat against both Canada and Mexico for at least one month without gaining anything. Mexico again promised to deploy troops to help prevent illegal border crossings, as it has repeatedly in recent years. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised the same $1.3 billion in border security enhancements he had already pledged in December, only this time with the addition of a new “fentanyl czar” in the Canadian government.
In the meantime, Trump has done nothing since taking office to push for the fentanyl-detecting equipment that had been contained in bipartisan border security legislation that he blocked last summer.
“He stood in the way of 100 fentanyl detection machines,” said Andrew Bates, a former White House aide under President Joe Biden, referring to the devices that the Department of Homeland Security says are the best tool for stopping the flow of the drug.
Currently, only a small fraction of all cars crossing northward into the United States from Mexico are scanned as they enter. The vast majority of fentanyl seized at the border is taken from cars driven by American citizens at official ports of entry. Had the bill that Trump blocked last summer passed — he said he told his allies in Congress to kill it because it would have helped Democrats beat him in November — the 100 new machines would have dramatically increased the percentage of scanned cars.
“If he really cared about people being hurt by fentanyl, he wouldn’t have blocked the biggest package of anti-fentanyl trafficking measures in years,” Bates said.
Cheung would not respond to questions about Trump’s choice to block that legislation — nor would he respond to a question about Trump’s pardon of convicted drug dealer Ross Ulbricht, given his campaign speeches praising the death penalty for drug dealers.
Ulbricht created the “Silk Road” site on the so-called dark web, which was designed specifically for the sale of illegal drugs around the world. More than a decade ago, it was used in the earliest days of the fentanyl epidemic to mail the drug directly into the country.
Federal prosecutors showed how at least six Americans died from an overdose using Silk Road, with Ulbricht getting a commission from every transaction. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years.
Trump said he pardoned Ulbricht because he promised pro-drug libertarians he would do so if they supported his candidacy. “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me,” Trump wrote in a Jan. 21 social media post.
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Trump’s “weaponization” claim refers to two federal prosecutions against him: one for his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt, and the other for his refusal to turn over secret documents he took with him to his South Florida country club upon leaving the White House in 2021. Both cases were dismissed after his November election win because of the Department of Justice’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.