U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Justice Department on March 14 in Washington.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Donald Trump is celebrating what he called the “unbelievable results” that his tariffs have achieved in slowing the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
Mr. Trump said punitive border levies on Canada, Mexico and China would remain in place until the deadly narcotic is no longer entering his country.
But in a speech made to the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, he also suggested that his own country has much to do in combatting fentanyl use – including plans for a graphic new public-health campaign – and offered some of his most positive comments to date on the response he received after initially imposing 25-per-cent tariffs on many goods from Canada and Mexico, and 20-per-cent on imports from China.
“They weren’t happy about it,” Mr. Trump said in a speech to Attorney-General Pam Bondi, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its new head, Kash Patel, in which he also pledged to use his powers as President to settle old scores.
“But they are working like hell to end it. They weren’t working very hard before I did that.”
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Mr. Trump also credited a conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for prompting a shift in his own thinking. She described what he called “very rough ads” depicting the ravages narcotics inflict on users.
”They show the skin falling off and the teeth falling out. And going blind. And losing hair,” Mr. Trump said. That phone call, the President said, changed his outlook. He is now planning a similar advertising blitz for the U.S., designed to emphasize how illegal narcotics can damage a person’s image.
“You lose your look,” he said. “Everyone’s vain. They don’t want to lose their look.”
He held out hope that such an approach could cut by a third the toll fentanyl is taking on the U.S. He did not define what metrics could be used to measure that.
It’s not clear how effective that approach could be, although research has shown that graphic labels on cigarettes can prompt smokers to make more attempts to quit the habit. Compared with regular packaging, graphic health warnings can also make people with a lower nicotine dependence less likely to buy.
But after months of holding Canada and Mexico responsible for the use of fentanyl inside the U.S., Mr. Trump’s plans to carpet the country in gruesome advertising suggest that he may be prepared to also look more closely at domestic solutions to some of the factors that propel use of illegal drugs.
Mr. Trump’s discursive on narcotics came in the midst of a lengthy speech in which he repeated a series of threats to take revenge on people he considers his foes. Unlike on the campaign trail, however, he was speaking as U.S. President, from within a Department of Justice whose leadership he has selected.
He recounted what he called errors of the Joe Biden administration, including in foreign policy.
“The people who did this to us should go to jail. They should go to jail,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump is the first convicted felon to become U.S. president. He was impeached twice, has been found liable for sexual abuse and won re-election with a litany of felony charges against him. Many of those charges were dropped or suspended after his victory, with prosecutors citing the long-standing practice of the Department of Justice against the indictment and prosecution of a sitting president.
Since returning to the White House, Mr. Trump has rescinded security clearance for Mr. Biden, and suspended security clearances for employees of two law firms that represented Hillary Clinton, his former political opponent, and Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who brought two criminal cases against him.
Mr. Trump said his election constitutes a mandate to conduct a far-reaching investigation into what he called ”the corruption of our system.”
”We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government,” he said.
“It’s going to be legendary,” he added.
Mr. Trump, who has styled himself as a restorer of past American greatness and values, also described his efforts to make the country look better in the eyes of the world. Removing tent encampments, graffiti and potholes from Washington, he said, was a way to ensure international leaders are not subjected to unsightly glimpses of the U.S. when they visit him.
“We had it looking beautiful,” he said.
He contrasted his own governing approach, which has been criticized as a concerted effort to expand executive powers, with that of his political opponents.
“They tried to turn America into a corrupt Communist and third-world country,” he said. “But in the end, the thugs failed and the truth won.”