In a move poised to raise prices for Americans and kick off an indefinite trade war, President Donald Trump signed an order Saturday night to impose stiff tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China. The tariffs will go into effect on Tuesday.
The move, which Trump declared a national emergency to make, places a 10% duty on all imports from China and 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada. Energy imported from Canada, including oil, natural gas, and electricity, will have a 10% tax rate. The president, who has said that tariff is “the most beautiful word,” also included a mechanism to increase these rates should other countries retaliate against the tariffs—queuing up a potential snowball effect.
The US Chamber of Commerce called the decision “unprecedented” in a statement on Saturday, adding that it will “only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains.” The Tax Foundation, the world’s leading independent tax policy nonprofit, estimates an average tax increase of more than $830 per US household in 2025. A new analysis by the Budget Lab at Yale puts that number even higher, saying the average American household would lose the equivalent of $1,170 in income as a result.
In a Sunday morning Truth Social post, Trump ranted about the “RIPOFF OF AMERICA,” and said the United States was “not going to be the ‘Stupid Country’ any longer.” He, in part and without evidence, said the tariffs were an attempt to curb crime and prevent drugs from coming into the country. “THIS WILL BE THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA!” the president wrote, “WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!).”
As CNBC’s Greg Iacurci explained, “Tariffs are a tax on foreign imports. US businesses that import goods pay that tax to the federal government.” “Many businesses,” Iacurci continued, “will funnel those extra costs to customers — either directly or indirectly.”
The response—and the retaliatory moves—from the targeted countries was swift.
“The actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. Canada, in response, will put matching 25% tariffs on up to $155 billion in imports from the US, including alcohol and fruit. In his remarks, Trudeau mentioned that Canadian troops have aided Americans in crises like the wildfires in California, and fought alongside their neighbors in Afghanistan.
“We were always there standing with you, grieving with you, the American people,” he said.
David Eby, the premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia, urged residents to stop buying liquor from “red” states, adding that American alcohol brands would start being removed from government store shelves. “The Americans are bigger,” he said at a news conference Saturday, “but if we don’t stand up for ourselves, they will just keep coming back for more.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X that she and her country “categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory.” Mexico, too, will be imposing retaliatory tariffs on the US. “Problems are not resolved by imposing tariffs, but by talking and dialoguing, as we did in recent weeks with your State Department to address the phenomenon of migration; in our case, with respect for human rights.”
In a statement, China’s ministry of commerce announced that its government would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and take “corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests”—though it’s unclear exactly what measures will be pursued.
“To impose tariffs as high as 25% on our closest trading partners risks decimating the North American economic powerhouse—which the US relies on,” Christine McDaniel, a former trade official in President George W. Bush’s administration, said, per CNN. “Why would you want to burn your own house down?”
