What's up.
How are you? Could you take a few questions from us? Would you?
Let me make a few remarks.
OK, thank you.
We have a very fast moving situation with the tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico. Obviously, we've had a very good result today with Mexico, with the president negotiating directly with the Mexican president. The back story there is that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller here in the White House, the folks at DHS have all done a very good job trying to work with the Mexican government.
The Mexican government understands this, that this is a drug war, not a trade war. This is a drug war, not a trade war. We have an unprecedented amount of Americans dying every year from fentanyl alone and it's roughly the same number, about 75,000 annually, that are going to be sitting in the Superdome for the Super Bowl.
And it's more by a large margin than the number of soldiers we lost in the Vietnam War, and this happens year after year after year. The way this process works is it starts with China. China makes what's called the precursor chemicals that are then blended by Mexican drug cartels in Mexico into not just deadly fentanyl, but the fentanyl is used also to spike, things like heroin and speed and other deadly drugs.
And that pushes the death toll to well over 100,000 a year. And then what has happened with Canada is the Mexican cartels have expanded up to Canada. They're making fentanyl there and sending it down to the US from there. The -- the Chinese are using Canada to send in small parcels below the radar and fentanyl, one glass of it, can kill millions of Americans, just one single glass.
It's that deadly. Canada, what is it now, it's 1:27 here East Coast time. President Trump will be speaking for the second time with the Canadian Prime minister, Justin Trudeau. The difference between Mexico and Canada thus far is that Canada thinks we're fighting a trade war with them. That's not the case here.
This is a drug war. And I think it's important that if Canada, Canadian citizens themselves can understand that what we are trying to do here is stop the killing of Americans by these deadly drugs, to stop Canada from allowing terrorists on the watch list, up to 100 have already come in, from entering our country that will be a -- the way to find a resolution of this problem.
So, let's see what happens. The boss always likes to say that. I'll take a few questions only with respect to this situation, sir?
Can you say -- so, are you happy that now that there's a deferral for a month with the Mexican, uh -- with the Mexican tariffs, and do you -- do you think that these tariffs were used more as a threat or were you -- are you -- is the administration actually planning for them to take effect?
If President Trump and the Mexican president can agree on substantial steps towards solving this problem, which will then lead to a 30-day grace period on this, everybody should be happy. Mexico is happy, the United States is happy. We've got a long way to go. There's a lot of things to be done, but this is the way President Trump negotiates.
And you can rest assured that if we do not get cooperation from countries, then of course the tariffs will be implemented. We have no other choice. President Trump wants to save American lives. Yes, ma'am?
Say that the tariffs go -- have to go into effect, when do you think, and what kind of results, do you expect to have in terms of fentanyl entering the United States?
Well, the obvious metric here is to see no Americans dying from fentanyl, that -- and no fentanyl being seized at the border, and no intelligence that tells us that the Mexican cartels are making all of that. So, there's just a lot of -- there's a lot of metrics. Yes, ma'am?
Sir, do you expect a similar deal with Canada to happen later today? And are you also talking to China potentially about deferrals for them as well?
President Trump is speaking with Prime Minister Trudeau. Obviously, we have had a good result so far with, uh, Mexico. But -- but this is going to be, uh -- it's going to take some time to get to where we need to be. This is a crisis. I -- I'm one of three people that was with the president at the senior level back in the first term.
I served all four years; Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino are the other two. I watched this crisis, Kellyanne Conway was kind of the tip of that spear, and we got nothing, nothing, but misdirection from all of the people involved in that chain; China, Mexico, Canada, on that issue and people kept dying and then Biden comes along and he doesn't even care.
We care. President Trump cares. President Trump ran on this. This is a key part of why Americans voted for Trump; the border invasion, a key component of that is fentanyl. Yes, sir?
Have you heard any more on China, what's going to be the conversation there?
I -- I -- that's to be determined at this point. Yeah. Today the -- today, the phone call is with President Trudeau. Yes, ma'am? Let me take one more and then I got to get to things. Yes, ma'am?
What action specifically are you looking to see from Canada in order to consider a grace period? And then I know you don't want to get too far into China, but have officials in the administration been in contact with their counterparts on this issue today?
So, that's a diplomatic issue. And those discussions will be between Canadian diplomats, the presidents, President Trump, Mr. Trudeau, and as I said earlier, Mark -- Senator -- Secretary of State, Marco Rubio has been doing a wonderful job engaging. Um, this is the way diplomacy works and President Trump does it better than anybody.
All right, one more. Sir?
Considering that President Trump declared that Mexican cartels are terrorist organization, do you consider the Mexican government as a terrorist supporting --
Let's not -- this this kind of -- this is not the kind of question or rhetoric we need. OK. Hang on, sir. This is a serious matter. Americans are dying and we're going to have sober reflection on what needs to be done to solve it and we're not going to have that kind of rhetoric. OK? I appreciate you. I appreciate -- I got -- I got stuff to do. I think I've given you more than enough here.
And I'm more than --
Thank you, sir. Thank you, appreciate it.
Yes, sir? OK. Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Yes.