Donald Trump dined on Wednesday with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, bringing together the Facebook founder and the former president who was once banned from that social network.
Stephen Miller, who has been appointed deputy chief of staff for Trump’s second term, said Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to support Trump’s economic plans. The tech CEO has been seeking to change his company’s perception on the right following a rocky relationship with Trump.
“Mark, obviously, he has his own interest, and he has his own company and he has his own agenda,” Miller said in an interview on Fox News about the meeting. “But he’s made clear that he wants to support the national renewal of America under Trump’s leadership.”
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that Zuckerberg and Trump met on Wednesday, saying he was invited for dinner with the president-elect and other members of his team to talk about the incoming administration.
Trump was kicked off Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The company restored his account in early 2023.
During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president.
Zuckerberg has since taken a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt, calling it “badass.” Zuckerberg also complained that senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic.
Still, Trump in recent months had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly. In July, he posted a message on his own social network Truth Social threatening to send election fraudsters to prison in part by citing a nickname he used for the Meta CEO. “ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Trump wrote.
The Thanksgiving eve visit also comes as tech mogul Elon Musk has become more influential in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, contributing an estimated $200 million through his political action committee to help elect Trump. Musk is the billionaire owner of the X social network, a competitor to Meta.
Musk has spent considerable time at Mar-a-Lago since the election, and Trump selected him to lead an outside advisory panel known as the “Department of Government Efficiency ” to identify waste with Vivek Ramaswamy, a venture capitalist and former GOP presidential candidate.
Donald Trump loved to use tariffs on foreign goods during his first presidency. But their impact was barely noticeable in the overall economy, even if their aftershocks were clear in specific industries.
The data show they never fully delivered on his promised factory jobs. Nor did they provoke the avalanche of inflation that critics feared.
This time, though, his tariff threats might be different.
The president-elect is talking about going much bigger — on a potential scale that creates more uncertainty about whether he’ll do what he says and what the consequences could be.
“There’s going to be a lot more tariffs, I mean, he’s pretty clear,” said Michael Stumo, the CEO of Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group that has supported import taxes to help domestic manufacturing.
The president-elect posted on social media Monday that on his first day in office, he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada until those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States.
Those tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s team negotiated during his initial term. But on Wednesday, Trump posted on social media that he had spoken with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and she had agreed to stop unauthorized migration across the border into the United States.
Trump also posted on Monday that Chinese imports would face additional tariffs of 10% until Beijing cracks down on the production of materials used in making fentanyl.
Democrats and business groups warn of risks from Trump’s tariff threats
Business groups were quick to warn about rapidly escalating inflation. House Democrats put together legislation to strip a president’s ability to unilaterally apply tariffs this drastic, warning that they would likely lead to higher prices for autos, shoes, housing, and groceries.
Sheinbaum initially said Wednesday that her administration is already working up a list of possible retaliatory tariffs “if the situation comes to that.” Similarly, the Canadian government has also started to explore retaliatory tariffs if Trump takes action.
House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require congressional approval for a president to impose tariffs due to claims of a national emergency, a largely symbolic action given Republicans’ coming control of both the House and Senate.
“This legislation would enable Congress to limit this sweeping emergency authority and put in place the necessary Congressional oversight before any president – Democrat or Republican – could indiscriminately raise costs on the American people through tariffs,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.
But for Trump, tariffs are now a tested tool that seems less politically controversial even if the mandate he received in November’s election largely involved restraining inflation.
The tariffs he imposed on China in his first term were continued by President Joe Biden, a Democrat who even expanded tariffs and restrictions on the world’s second-largest economy. Biden administration officials looked at removing Trump’s tariffs in order to bring down inflationary pressures, only to find they were unlikely to help significantly.
Tariffs were “so new and unique that it freaked everybody out in 2017,” said Stumo, but they are now seen as part of the policy toolkit by the United States and other countries.
Trump’s first-term tariffs had a modest impact on the economy
Trump imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines at the start of 2018, moves that might have pushed up prices in those sectors even though they also overlapped with plans to open washing machine plants in Tennessee and South Carolina.
His administration also levied tariffs on steel and aluminum, including against allies. He then increased tariffs on China, leading to a trade conflict and a limited 2020 agreement that failed to produce the promised Chinese purchases of U.S. goods.
Still, the dispute changed relations with China as more U.S. companies looked for alternative suppliers in other countries. Economic research also found the United States may have sacrificed some of its “soft power” as the Chinese population began to watch fewer American movies.
The Federal Reserve kept inflation roughly on target, but factory construction spending never jumped in a way that suggested a lasting gain in manufacturing jobs. Separate economic research found the tariff war with China did nothing economically for the communities hurt by offshoring, but it did help Trump and Republicans in those communities politically.
When Trump first became president in 2017, the federal government collected $34.6 billion in customs, duties, and fees. That sum more than doubled under Trump to $70.8 billion in 2019, according to Office of Management and Budget records.
While that sum might seem meaningful, it was relatively small compared with the overall economy. America’s gross domestic product is now $29.3 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The total tariffs collected in the United States would equal less than 0.3% of GDP.
Trump wants much more far-reaching tariffs going forward
The new tariffs being floated by Trump now are dramatically larger and there could be far more significant impacts.
If Mexico, Canada, and China faced the additional tariffs proposed by Trump on all goods imported to the United States, that could be roughly equal to $266 billion in tax collections, a number that does not assume any disruptions in trade or retaliatory moves by other countries. The cost of those taxes would likely be borne by U.S. families, importers and domestic and foreign companies in the form of higher prices or lower profits.
Former Biden administration officials said they worried that companies could piggyback on Trump’s tariffs — if they’re imposed — as a rationale to raise their prices. This would mirror price increases by many companies in 2022 that were made possible because Russia invaded Ukraine, which pushed up food and energy prices and gave the companies cover to further raise their own prices.
“I’m very worried about the total indiscriminate tariffs on more than China — that it gives cover to firms to jack up prices,” said Jen Harris, a former Biden White House official who is now director of the Economy and Society Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
But what Trump didn’t really spell out is what might cause him to back down on tariffs and declare a victory. What he is creating instead with his tariff threats is a sense of uncertainty as companies and countries await the details to figure out what all of this could mean.
“We know the key economic policy priorities of the incoming Trump administration, but we don’t know how or when they will be addressed,” said Greg Daco, chief U.S. economist at EY-Parthenon.
Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the United States should President-elect Donald Trump follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a senior official said Wednesday.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across southern and northern borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
But Trump posted Wednesday evening on Truth Social that he had a “wonderful conversation” with new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and she “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico.”
“Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately. THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA. Thank you!!!” Trump posted.
It was unclear what impact the conversation will have on Trump’s plan to impose tariffs.
In Canada, a government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no decision has been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.
Many of the U.S. products were chosen for their political rather than economic impact. For example, Canada imports $3 million worth of yogurt from the U.S. annually and most come from one plant in Wisconsin, the home state of then-House Speaker Paul Ryan. That product was hit with a 10% duty.
Another product on the list was whiskey, which comes from Tennessee and Kentucky, the latter of which is the home state of then-Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump made the threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.
The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.
Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but say they are ready to make new investments in border security and work with the Trump administration to lower the numbers from Canada. The Canadians are also worried about an influx north of migrants if Trump follows through with his plan for mass deportations.
Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border pale in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Canadian officials argue their country is not the problem and that tariffs will have severe implications for both countries.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum, and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held an emergency virtual meeting on Wednesday with the leaders of Canada’s provinces. He stressed they need to present a united front.
“I don’t want to minimize for a moment the gravity of the challenge we now face,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said. “Now is really a moment for us not to squabble amongst ourselves.”
The provincial premiers want Trudeau to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the United States that excludes Mexico.
Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said earlier Wednesday that her administration is already working up a list of possible retaliatory tariffs “if the situation comes to that.”
She later said she talked to Trump and had “an excellent conversation.”
President-elect Donald Trump declared a win on stopping illegal immigration through Mexico on Wednesday after talking with that country’s leader. But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested Mexico was already doing its part and had no interest in closing its borders.
The two spoke just days after Trump threatened to impose sweeping new tariffs on Canada and Mexico as part of his effort to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs.
Trump said Sheinbaum “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico.” Sheinbaum indicated separately on social media that she told Trump that Mexico is already “taking care of” migrant caravans, calling it an “excellent conversation.”
“We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples,” Sheinbaum added.
While the state of the proposed tariffs remained unclear, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account that this was “effectively closing our Southern Border.” He called it a “very productive conversation.”
The exchange between the two leaders appeared to confirm for Trump the value of threatening to disrupt trade with import taxes. His initial social media post moved financial markets and gave him a response he was quick to describe as a win. Even if the proposed tariffs fail to materialize, Trump can tell supporters that the mere possibility of them is an effective policy tool and continues to rely on tariff threats.
Sheinbaum wrote on social media that the leaders “discussed Mexico’s strategy on migration issues, and I told him the caravans are not reaching the northern (U.S.) border because Mexico is taking care of them.”
“We also talked about reinforcing cooperation on security issues, within the framework of our sovereignty, and the campaign we are carrying out to prevent fentanyl consumption,” she said.
Illegal migration across the Mexico border is down in part because the Biden administration secured some stepped-up cooperation from Mexico — the sort Trump seems to be celebrating.
Arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped 40% from an all-time high in December. U.S. officials mostly credit Mexican vigilance around rail yards and highway checkpoints.
Driven by mounting pressure from the U.S. to block migrants going north, in the past few years Mexican authorities have turned to rounding them up across the country and sending them to southern Mexico, in a strategy seen by experts as an attempt to wear migrants out until they give up.
Neither side clarified the status of the tariffs. But their implementation could fuel higher prices and slow economic growth, potentially blowing up the trade agreement among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico that was finalized in 2020 during Trump’s previous time in the White House.
Trump on Monday said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders upon taking office on Jan. 20. He also proposed an additional 10% tariff on China tied to its exporting of materials used in the production of fentanyl.
In announcing his plans, he railed against the flow of fentanyl and migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally, even though southern border apprehensions have been hovering near four-year lows.
On Wednesday, Trump also posted that he plans a large-scale ad campaign to explain “how bad Fentanyl is for people to use,” predicting it would educate people on “how really bad the horror of this Drug is.”
The dangerously powerful opioid was developed to treat intense pain from ailments like cancer but has increasingly been mixed with other drugs in the illicit drug supply.
Through September, the United States has imported $378.9 billion in goods from Mexico, $322.2 billion from China, and $309.3 billion from Canada.