Trump discussed the tariffs in a series of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social. One update announced the official orders of the tariffs, stating that the decision was made to “protect” Americans “because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl.”

It’s now clear that President Trump will hold off for a time on his campaign promises to impose stiff, strictly trade-related tariffs of varying levels on all of America’s economic competitors, though import duties relating to border security or other non-economic issues were announced Saturday for implementation Tuesday.