Donald Trump on Saturday formally put into place tariffs that are even unpopular among some of his strongest Republican allies, resulting in mockery from observers.
Trump signed an order instituting the controversial tariffs, and then posted an explanation to Truth Social.
"Today, I have implemented a 25% Tariff on Imports from Mexico and Canada (10% on Canadian Energy), and a 10% additional Tariff on China," Trump said. "This was done through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl."
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On social media, critics blasted the President's move. The conservative anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project noted Trump's explanatory comment and said, "When you are explaining you’re losing."
Economic policy expert Brian Riedl said, "When the international community wants to hammer an enemy's economy, it isolates that economy by imposing a trade embargo. Only the U.S. government is dumb enough to impose a trade embargo on itself."
Journalist S.V. Dáte said, "Donald Trump announcing here that he has increased taxes on Americans by $297 billion a year."
Conservative Bill Kristol said, "If only we had a body, with democratic legitimacy and powers conferred by a Constitution, that could overrule a president who seeks to impose arbitrary tariffs and to deport people who fled here to escape oppression."
"It could be called the Congress of the United States," he added.
Journalist Kevin Baron pointed out a blunt headline from the CBC, which said, "President Donald Trump has launched a trade war against Canada by imposing a 25 per cent tariff on virtually all goods, coming into effect on Tuesday."
"Note: Canadian headline says it straight — 'Trump has launched a trade war' — not 'enacted tariffs,'" Baron wrote Saturday.
Journalist Josh Marshall said, "In addition to being a huge tax on 'simple' imports I can only imagine what this does to industries which have been designed to work back and forth across US-CA-MEX border like the auto industry."
Economist Marc Lévesque chimed in, "So, it's official. Trump has just violated the Canada-US-Mexico Free Trade agreement that he himself signed."