What happened
U.S. stock futures were down sharply, oil prices were higher and Asian markets were lower Monday morning, the first trading day since President Donald Trump’s Saturday orders for 25% tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% import tax on Chinese goods. Oil imports from Canada will be taxed at 10%. Canada quickly announced targeted retaliatory tariffs and Mexico and China said they will unveil their responses soon.
Who said what
“Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe,” Trump said in all-caps on Truth Social Sunday. But “it will all be worth the price that must be paid.” The tariffs on America’s top three trading partners are expected to raise the prices of everything from gas, cars, consumer electronics and homebuilding to avocados, tomatoes and Mexican beer and tequila. Trump has “framed his latest actions as leverage on immigration and drugs,” The Associated Press said, though tiny amounts of fentanyl and migrants enter the U.S. from Canada.
“Tariffs are simply taxes,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on X, and “taxing trade will mean less trade and higher taxes.” If other congressional Republicans agreed, The New York Times said, “they kept it to themselves.” This is “the dumbest trade war in history,” The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial, and that may be “an understatement.”
What next?
The U.S. and Canadian tariffs are scheduled to go into effect Tuesday. “What comes next is highly uncertain because Trump’s motives are difficult to discern,” the Journal said.