JD Vance: Trump ready to wage all-out trade war with China to stop fentanyl crisis

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) said during an interview over the weekend that if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump retakes the White House this fall, the administration is prepared to threaten an all-out trade war with communist China to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

Vance’s comments, made during an interview Sunday on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” with Margaret Brennan, come as hundreds of thousands of Americans have died in recent years from the fentanyl crisis, which has worsened under the Biden-Harris administration.

When asked whether he sees China as a competitor or an adversary, Vance replied: “I think they are both, and I think we want to create some kind of international order here where we can control China. We don’t want to go to war with China, but they are certainly an adversary.”

“For example, the Chinese know that they are producing tons of fentanyl, they are allowing it to come into our country,” he said. “Kamala Harris has done nothing about this. She should be putting diplomatic and economic pressure on the Chinese to stop producing this fentanyl, which then goes to the Mexican drug cartels, who then ship it to our country.”

Vance said the solution to the crisis is to go to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and say, “Your entire economy is going to collapse if you don’t get access to American markets. You have to take this fentanyl seriously, or we are going to impose severe tariffs and economic penalties for not following our laws and not helping to stem the flow of this deadly poison.”

When asked if he would be concerned about the backlash from doing so, Vance replied: “I think we have a powerful economy, Margaret, with the best workers in the world. If we have to have a trade war with the Chinese, we will do it and we will win, but we cannot do what Kamala Harris has done, which is be so afraid to use the economic power that we have that she is not even willing to stop the flow of this deadly poison into our country.”

WATCH:

.@JDVance suggests the US should use economic pressure on China to stop fentanyl production: “You walk into Beijing, you talk to Xi Jinping, and you say your entire economy is going to collapse if you don’t get access to American markets. You have to… photo.twitter.com/fOpmyHIzO9

— Look at the Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 11, 2024