The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | January 31st, 2025: Trump Readies Crippling Tariffs Against Canada And Mexico & Tensions Escalate With Russia Over The Arctic
31 Jan 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, President Trump said Thursday he plans to make good on his threats against Mexico and Canada, and will imminently enact a 25 percent tariff on their imports. We’ll discuss the implications, and how both countries plan to respond. Then, in a sign of the escalating tensions between Moscow and the West over the Arctic, multiple Russian warplanes were spotted in the region this week, forcing NORAD to hastily scramble American and Canadian fighter jets. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Friday, 31 January. Well, look at that. We made it to the end of the month. Welcome to the BDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, President Trump said he plans to make good on his threats against Mexico and Canada and will enact a 25% tariff on their imports.
We'll discuss the implications and how both countries may respond. Then, in a sign of the escalating tensions between Moscow and the West over the Arctic, Multiple Russian warplanes were spotted in the region this week, forcing NORAD to hastily scramble American and Canadian fighter jets. But first, our afternoon spotlight.
President Trump declared his intent Thursday to follow through on his economic threats against Canada and Mexico, teeing up a potential trade war with U.S. regional allies.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said he planned to put in place 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with the border taxes set to go into effect on Saturday, though unconfirmed reports suggested that they may not be imposed until the 1st of March.
Trump argues that both countries are taking advantage of current imbalances in the North American Free Trade Pact and are not doing enough to curb illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking into the U.S., according to a report from the New York Post.
Trump also criticized the hundreds of billions in subsidies that the US gives Canada and Mexico each year, arguing that the tariffs are needed to address the, quote, very big deficits that the US has with both nations.
The president first threatened the tariffs following his election victory in November, though many had assumed it was simply a negotiating tactic to secure trade concessions and assurances from Canada and Mexico that they would crack down on border security.
But Trump argued Thursday that both countries continue to treat the U.S., quote, very unfairly on trade, and that now was the time to turn up the pressure. In his remarks, Trump said, quote, look, Canada and Mexico, they have never been good to us on trade, and we will be able to make that up very quickly because we don't need the products that they have, end quote. He said the U.S.
has some of the largest supplies of oil and lumber globally and that he'll work to free those sectors from his predecessor's environmental regulations in order to boost production.
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