President Donald Trump answered questions from the press after his administration’s first cabinet meeting, addressing two key issues: the temporary pause on tariffs for Canada and Mexico and the ongoing fight against fentanyl trafficking, reports Forbes.

Trump confirmed that the 30-day pause on tariffs will go into effect until April 2, allowing time for Canada and Mexico to demonstrate efforts to curb fentanyl trafficking. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick provided further clarification, stating, “We have the fentanyl-related—there’s a pause, if they can prove to the president that they’ve done an excellent job, that’s what they first do in 30 days, but then the overall is April 2. So the big transaction is April 2, but the fentanyl-related things, they’re working hard on the border, at the end of that 30 days, they have to prove to the president that they’ve satisfied him to that regard. If they have, there’ll be a pause or he won’t.”

Trump expressed doubt that Canada and Mexico would fully meet expectations, saying, “It’s going to be hard to satisfy.” He emphasized the devastating impact of fentanyl, noting, “We lose 300,000 people a year to fentanyl. Not 100, not 95, not 60 like you read, you’ve been reading it for years. We lost, in my opinion, over the last couple of years, on average maybe close to 300,000 people. Dead.”

Trump continued, highlighting the personal toll the crisis has taken on families. “The families are ruined. When they lose a daughter, when they lose a son, the families are never the same. So you’re talking about a million people. When the daughters die…when the sons die because of fentanyl, in some cases, they never even know they’ve taken it. They’re buying something else and it’s laced with fentanyl and they end up dying.”

“I’ve known many people who’ve lost children to fentanyl and for other reasons… It’s such a big killer, those people are never the same people. I’ve seen people that, for the rest of their lives, are not the same people. They’re so different it’s not believable. Dynamic, happy people that die a miserable death. That’s because of the crap that comes in through China and through Mexico and through Canada. It comes, a lot of it, through Canada.”

The fentanyl crisis has been a major priority for the Trump administration, with particular attention on drug trafficking across both the southern and northern borders. However, data from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicates that the vast majority of fentanyl—98 percent—is intercepted at the southwest border with Mexico, while less than 1 percent is seized at the northern border with Canada. In 2024, U.S. authorities seized around 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border, compared to approximately 21,100 pounds at the southern border, according to NPR.

In response to U.S. concerns, Canada has taken new measures to combat the fentanyl epidemic. The Canadian government recently appointed former RCMP officer Kevin Brosseau as the country’s new “fentanyl czar.” Brosseau is expected to work closely with U.S. law enforcement to “accelerate Canada’s ongoing work to detect, disrupt and dismantle the fentanyl trade.”