Trump Says He'll Speak to Canada, Mexico This Morning

In an aerial view, vehicles sit in traffic while waiting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, on Feb. 03, 2025. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday night that he would speak to the Canadian and Mexican leaders on Monday morning about his impending tariffs, which are scheduled to go into effect at midnight.

“I’m speaking with Prime Minister Trudeau tomorrow morning and I’m also speaking with Mexico tomorrow morning,” he said. “We put tariffs on. They owe us a lot of money, and I’m sure they’re going to pay.”

Trump said the 25 percent tariffs on non-energy imports are a result of Canada and Mexico not doing enough to help their United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) trading partner balance out remaining trade deficits and stop the free movement of illegal immigrants on their sides of the U.S. border.

Until these issues are addressed, the tariffs will remain in place, the president said.

“They have to balance out their trade, number one. And they’ve got to stop people from pouring into our country,” he said.

“We’ve stopped it. They haven’t stopped it.

“They have to stop people pouring in, and we have to stop fentanyl. And that includes China.”

On Feb. 1, Canada and Mexico retaliated with their own 25 percent tariffs. Canada announced initial tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. imports, which it said would increase to impact $155 billion worth of U.S. goods in 21 days, to allow affected Canadian companies to adjust their supply chains.

Mexico said it would respond “in defense of Mexico’s interests” with both tariff and non-tariff measures, although details of the policy were not specified.

Trump has shown no sign of backing down from his policy in what could escalate into a tit-for-tat trade war if the parties cannot arrive at an agreement.

“If they want to play the game, I don’t mind, we can play the game all they want,” Trump told reporters of the return of tariffs.

While Trump said he doesn’t “expect anything very dramatic” from Monday morning’s talks, he noted that he has had “very good talks” with Mexico on addressing their outstanding trade issues.

But he sounded less positive about Canada’s efforts.

“It’s been a one-way street,” Trump said of the relationship with the northern neighbor. “We subsidize Canada to the tune of about $200 billion a year. And for what? What do we get out of it? We don’t get anything out of it. ... Something is going to happen there.”

Despite the challenges, Trump decided to lower the tariffs on Canadian oil and gas to 10 percent after talks. While Canada maintains that the United States needs its energy exports, Trump recently said he doesn’t believe this remains the case, pointing to his executive orders to boost U.S. oil exploration and production.

Trump on Feb. 2 defended his tariffs on the top three U.S. trading partners, acknowledging that the structural surgery to stop the bleeding from trade deals could cause “a little pain” for the time being amid disruptions to current supply chains.

“But we will make America great again and it will all be worth the price that must be paid,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, TruthSocial, in all caps.

Vice President JD Vance said on social media platform X on Feb. 2 that the United States is done “asking nicely” and that now is the “consequences phase.”

He also noted that Canada is not meeting its agreed NATO spending of 2 percent of the national GDP, something that Trump has asked offending nations to address since his first term in office.

“Spare me the sob story about how Canada is our ‘best friend.’ I love Canada and have many Canadian friends,” Vance said. “But is the government meeting their NATO target for military spending? Are they stopping the flow of drugs into our country? I’m sick of being taken advantage of.”

In announcing Canada’s counter-tariffs, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Feb. 1 that Canada had introduced a $1.3 billion plan to increase border security.

“Our border is already safe and secure, but there’s always more work to do. Less than 1 percent of fentanyl, less than 1 percent of illegal crossings into the United States come from Canada,” he said.

He urged the Trump administration to drop its tariffs, saying they would increase costs for people on both sides of the border.

Trump has also said he will announce tariffs to address the trade imbalance with the EU soon.

Lee Harding and Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.