'Mad king': Trump baffles observers by suggesting he'll tariff illegal drugs
President Donald Trump left observers baffled this week when he suggested in a late-night Truth Social rant that his tariffs on Canadian goods would include taxes on illegal drugs.
In the Truth Social post, Trump said that one of his goals with the tariffs was to "penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, but Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy."
Given that fentanyl is an illegal drug, the government collects no taxes from its purchase or sale.
Trump seemingly not understanding this fact led to many puzzled reactions.
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"Wait. Does Trump think we can tariff the 'sale' of fentanyl into America from those Canadian drug cartels?" asked conservative Jonah Goldberg on X.
"Mad king watch," commented Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan. "Virtually no fentanyl comes through Canada and generally drug smugglers do not declare their imports at the border."
"This is real," marveled Canadian journalist Alex Pannetta. "Trump appears to be suggesting his tariffs on Canada will result in fentanyl dealers getting dinged at customs."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, made the case that this wasn't a simple slip-up from Trump as this was "the second time in the last 24 hours" that Trump has suggested taxing fentanyl.
Economics commentator Joey Politano simply pointed and laughed at the president.
"Okay so he genuinely thinks that fentanyl smugglers have to pay tariffs lmfao," he wrote on BlueSky.
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