Peter Navarro has said Canada has been ‘taken over’ (Image: Getty)
One of Donald Trump’s advisors has made a huge new attack on Canada, claiming it’s been “taken over” by crime gangs.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro appeared on Fox News’ Special Report yesterday (March 5), when he said that America’s neighbour has been “taken over by Mexican cartels”.
This came during a discussion about President Trump’s tariffs on Canada, which Navarro justified by saying the country was not doing enough to prevent the smuggling of fentanyl into the US.
This is despite almost all (98%) fentanyl that was seized last year being intercepted at the border with Mexico. Less than 1% was seized at the border with Canada. The remainder was from sea routes or other checkpoints.
Navarro said: “What I wanna say to every world leader who gets up in arms when all we’re asking for is fairness and to have them stop killing our people is please, listen to us.
Donald Trump has placed tariffs on Canada (Image: Getty)
“Canada could do a lot more. Canada has been taken over, Bret, by Mexican cartels. They bring up these pill presses and printers, and the medicines that they fake, you can’t tell the difference.
Host Bret Baier then asked: “Do you have metrics that you are going to set that they have to meet this and then the tariffs go away? I mean, do we publicly know what that threshold is?”
Navarro laughed and replied: “Well, there’s 70,000 Americans dying every year, and that’s the low estimate because you don’t pick up all the deaths from the fake Xanax.”
“True, but you’re putting them all in Canada’s pocket?” Baier asked.
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“No, of course not. Of course not, Bret,” replied Navarro. “But what we want to see is Canada and Mexico crack down on China.
“China, for whatever reason, and there is a lot of speculation as to whether they mean to do us harm with this, they don’t seem to care, okay? So, it’s up to Mexico and Canada to help us do this.”
He continued, “And look, here’s the other thing. The fentanyl crisis is so toxic to our economy, Bret, because most of the people that are dying are prime-age working people.”
“I think everybody’s on board on the fentanyl threat and the fentanyl deaths,” concluded Baier. “I think there are questions about tariff policy that we’re going to dig into as it keeps on going on.”