Peter Navarro: ‘Canada has been taken over … by Mexican cartels’

Yiannis Damellos

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” 

Joseph Goebbels 

Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser to President Trump, stated on Wednesday that Canada has essentially been "taken over" by Mexican cartels. This comment comes as tensions between the two countries escalate due to tariffs imposed by Trump aimed at combating the influx of fentanyl into the United States.

“What I want to say to every world leader who gets up in arms when all we’re asking for is fairness and to have them stop killing our people is, ‘Please, listen to us.’” Canada could do a lot more,” Navarro said, discussing drug flow into the U.S. on Fox News’s “Special Report” with anchor Bret Baier.

“Canada has been taken over, Bret, by Mexican cartels,” he continued as highlighted by Mediaite.

Navarro's comments come at a time of heightened tensions between Canada and the U.S. regarding tariffs. On Tuesday, President Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on both Canada and Mexico, in addition to a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. The president cited frustration over the influx of fentanyl into the U.S., although experts have noted that only a small amount of this substance enters the country through the northern border.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has been very vocal in his opposition to Trump's tariffs, expressed hope on Tuesday that the tariff dispute between Canada and the U.S. would be resolved within days.

“I hope it stops within the next few days. … And I’m not just saying that,” Ford told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”

“It will be an absolute disaster for both countries, and people will be unemployed, plants will shut down, assembly lines will shut down and inflation’s going to happen within days,” he continued later. “So this is unfortunate. One person’s responsible, and that’s President Trump.”

In his “Special Report” appearance, Navarro said he had been viewing a “press conference today and a reporter said something along the lines … only caught like four pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border.”

“Let me do a little fentanyl math for you,” Navarro added. “Four pounds kills a million people.”

Navarro did not explain how to trace four pounds of any substance across the vast Canadian-US border, but nobody really questioned him about it.