Make China, Mexico, and Canada Pay

By Cliff Kincaid

March 5, 2025

President Trump’s “trade war” is long overdue.

Every time President Trump talks about the great economy during his first term he says it was great “until COVID,” or words to that effect. What I do not understand is why the relatively modest tariffs being imposed on China do not consider the enormous damage COVID-19 did to our economy and especially our people.

Regarding Canada, let us recognize the truth about our “neighbor to the north.” Canadian Liberal Party Leader Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been corrupting Canada through drugs, sexual perversion, and a Muslim invasion.

Former drama teacher Trudeau, an admitted pothead, legalized marijuana nationwide and has facilitated the transgender revolution in Canadian schools. Trudeau, who visits mosques and has abandoned his Catholic faith on abortion and same-sex marriage, has invited foreign Muslims from terror-supporting countries to come to Canada.

On top of the destruction of their own nation, they have been taking economic advantage of the United States. That is why President Trump has put tariffs on Canadian goods.

Regarding Canada and Mexico, as noted by investment analyst Dan Niles, “they don’t have the cards” to win this “trade war.” These countries export 80 percent of their goods to the United States but we only export 16 per cent to them.

Mexico is being targeted because the Mexican drug cartels, working with the collaboration of the government of Mexico, are trafficking fentanyl with the assistance of the Chinese Communist Party that supplies the chemicals. Trump has promised to go beyond tariffs to waging military attacks on the cartels.

In addition to the fentanyl problem, SARS-CoV-2, the China virus that causes COVID-19, continues to cause serious illness. Anybody alive in the United States know this is a fact. We all know people still getting COVID and suffering as a result.

Look at the figures: CDC estimates that 72,000–120,000 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 between October 1 and December 7, 2024, and the virus is still causing “a substantial number of serious illnesses…”

It’s fine to talk about tariffs against China, Canada, or other nations, in response to economic concerns. What about the human damage done by COVID?

One think tank estimates that there were five “relief bills” in 2020 that provided an estimated $3.3 trillion of federal spending and the American Rescue Plan in 2021 added another $1.8 trillion.

This amounts to more than $5 trillion.

None of this addresses the lives that were lost. The latest estimate is 1.3 million. What price tag do you put on that?

The Heritage Foundation’s Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19 report shows the total financial cost to the U.S. amounted to $18 trillion.

In an op-ed, President Trump demanded $50 trillion in reparations over the release of the China virus from the Wuhan lab. On Maria Bartiromo’s show on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, he said, “They came out of the Wuhan lab. And I think if anybody thinks anything differently, they’re just kidding themselves. So, you can ask — China has to pay. They have to do something. They have to pay reparations.”

In this interview, he proposed $60 trillion in reperations.

Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch filed a lawsuit against China that demands $20 trillion in damages. But since it may be practically impossible to sue China for damages, other options should be pursued.

John Yoo, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and his co-author, Robert J. Delahunty, argue for other measures, such as the imposition of economic sanctions on Chinese officials, general tariffs on Chinese imports, restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S., and the expropriation of Chinese property in the United States.

“Conceivably,” they argue, “Washington could even cancel Chinese-held treasury debt and using the proceeds to create a trust fund that would compensate Americans harmed by the pandemic.”

Grzegorz Górny, a writer for the global publication Remix, did some digging into the controversy and points out that the U.S. Department of the Treasury clearly has the power to “confiscate Chinese assets in the U.S.” and “freeze all operations using American government obligations which were purchased by China…” The latter is estimated at $1.2 trillion. He concludes, “In one swift move, the U.S. may annul that debt and free itself from the Chinese loop.”

Still another option is Trump’s global summit on reparations, to highlight the Chinese role and mobilize the Free World against the communists.

Finally, regarding our so-called European allies, an amazing report publicized by the left-wing British Guardian newspaper reveals the awful truth — the European Union is spending more money on Russian oil and gas than on financial aid to Ukraine.

This bears repeating. The title of the report summary says it all: “EU imports of Russian fossil fuels in third year of invasion surpass financial aid sent to Ukraine.”

This means that the tough talk from Europe about standing up to Putin and supporting Ukraine is empty rhetoric.

No wonder Trump has concluded Europe can’t be trusted and that the war in Ukraine must end. Europe is helping Russia finance the no-win war.

It’s time for a new approach, especially with Ukraine under its comical and unstable president.

E-Mail Cliff Kincaid: kincaid@comcast.net

Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org