White House Confirms Tariffs Coming on Saturday: 5 Takeaways From Press Conference

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press conference at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 31, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday provided updates on President Donald Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico as well as issues related to the U.S. economy and illegal immigration.

Tariffs Coming Saturday

The press secretary said the president will implement a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods, effective Saturday, Feb. 1. It’s not clear whether there will be any exemptions.

Trump has warned Canada and Mexico about the tariffs because of what he said was their failure to prevent illegal immigration and drug trafficking into the United States. The tariff on China would be for what Trump said was failing to stop the manufacturing of fentanyl precursor chemicals, she said.

“Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,” Leavitt told reporters. “These are promises made and promises kept by the president.”

Leavitt said Trump had not decided on a timeline for implementing tariffs against European Union countries. She also did not elaborate on whether the Mexico, China, and Canada tariffs would include oil imports.

A day earlier, Trump said that “we may or may not” make an exception for oil imports.

“It depends on what the price is. If the oil is properly priced, if they treat us properly, which they don’t,” he said.

Both Canada and Mexico have said they’ve prepared the option of retaliatory tariffs to be used if necessary.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is ready to respond if Trump goes ahead with the tariffs.

“We’re ready with a response, a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response,” he said. “It’s not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico has maintained a dialogue with Trump’s team since before he returned to the White House, but she emphasized that Mexico has a “Plan A, Plan B, Plan C for what the United States government decides.”

DOD Working on Guantanamo

Leavitt also confirmed that the Department of Defense (DOD) is working on increasing the bed capacity at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba for housing illegal immigrants arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The action will allow the United States to use Guantanamo in its “full capacity to provide critical extra detention space for high-priority criminal illegals” because U.S. immigration officials continue to make more arrests across the country, she said.

Earlier this week, Trump said in a memorandum that he is instructing the DOD to prepare Guantanamo to detain illegal immigrants with criminal records. In a speech at the White House, he said the facility at Guantanamo will hold 30,000 individuals, whom he described as the “worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”

“This will double our capacity immediately,” he said, adding that Guantanamo is a “tough” place to escape from.

The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay was set up in 2002 by President George W. Bush to detain foreign militant suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. There are 15 detainees left in the prison.

Trump’s predecessors, Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, sought to shut down the Guantanamo prison and were only able to reduce its inmate population, but Trump has said he would keep it open.

Leavitt said that 97 percent of people who were deported from the United States in recent days “had a removal order from the previous administration that the previous administration refused to act on” and that the Trump administration is “following the law.”

US Mission to Venezuela

Leavitt confirmed that the U.S. special missions envoy, Richard Grenell, is visiting Venezuela to meet with that country’s leadership to ensure that 400 members of the Tren de Aragua gang in U.S. custody are returned to Venezuela and that all U.S. detainees there are returned home.

Grenell was told by Trump to ensure that Venezuela’s government allows for deportation flights of gang members to land in the country, she said.

“We expect every nation on this planet to cooperate with the repatriation of [their] citizens,” she said. She did not provide more details.

Earlier this month and before Trump took office, the United States imposed new sanctions on eight Venezuelan officials and increased to $25 million the reward it is offering for the arrest of Nicolás Maduro. Former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Maduro’s inauguration last week “illegitimate” and said the United States “does not recognize Nicolas Maduro as the president of Venezuela.”

Increasing Air Staffing

In the wake of Wednesday’s midair collision and crash involving an American Eagle regional jetliner and a U.S. Army helicopter, Leavitt said Trump is “increasing staffing” at air safety agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“That’s why he signed a very strong executive order on his second day in office, immediately terminating DEI hiring practices at the FAA,” Leavitt said, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

“He also, following the tragic crash, as you all know, in the Oval Office yesterday signed a memorandum, directing an immediate assessment of the FAA to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and aviation safety standards.”

The cause of the collision has not been determined.

Leavitt also said that Trump believes commercial flying “is still indeed safe, and Americans should feel safe,” echoing comments he made a day earlier at the White House.

Eliminating Taxes on Tips

Levitt said that Trump also called on congressional lawmakers working on a reconciliation bill to include various tax cut promises that he made during the 2024 campaign.

During the campaign, Trump promised to end taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits for seniors.

Regarding “no taxes on tips and Social Security, the president has made it very clear to our allies on Capitol Hill” that he wants that included in the bill, Leavitt said, later noting that Trump conveyed to Congress members that he wanted to add a provision to not tax overtime pay to the reconciliation measure.

“That is a critical piece of this reconciliation package,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.