Donald Trump announced that he would slap a 25% tariff on Mexican imports if the country doesn’t stop migrants and drugs from coming into the United States.
“If they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I am going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send into the United States of America,” Trump told a boisterous crowd in Raleigh.
Claudia Sheinbaum was recently sworn in as Mexico’s first female president. Trump has not met the former Mayor of Mexico City but said said he heard she was “a very nice woman,” the Associated Press reported.
Trump famously promised to make Mexico pay for a new border wall while he was running for president in 2016.
Portions of the wall were built with United States funding.
Trump previously promised 200% tariffs on vehicles imported from Mexico. That came after promising 100% tariffs at one point on cars built in Mexico.
The former president has made tariffs a key element of his economic plan, claiming it will pay for more tax cuts.
Democrats have called the tariffs a regressive tax on American families because they will pay higher prices on imported goods.
Supporters claim that tariffs will spur companies to build products in the United States but that process would not occur quickly.
