President Trump jokes about lettuce outbreak and tariffs in Oval Office
While taking questions in the Oval Office, President Trump joked about the explosive diarrhea epidemic and tariffs on Mexico.
President Donald Trump joked on Friday, July 24, that he might need to impose tariffs on “lettuce” in Mexico and “smoke” in Canada, referring to two issues that have recently affected millions of Americans: the foodborne illness epidemic and wildfire smoke drifting south from Canada.
The remarks were made at an Oval Office press conference after Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked, “When will it be safe to eat lettuce again?”
“We’re going to put massive tariffs on Mexico because of lettuce, and we’re going to put massive tariffs on Canada because of the smoke,” Trump said.
The president’s comments come at a time when federal health officials are investigating an outbreak of cyclosporiasis that has sickened thousands of people across the country, while smoke from Canadian wildfires has triggered repeated air pollution alerts across the United States.
Trump added: “I told Canada we need to do something about this. We’ve never had this problem. All of a sudden we have this problem with Canada.”
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has regularly affected air quality across the United States in recent years. In 2023, more than 9 million acres of Canada’s forests were on fire, and about 75 million people in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast were under air pollution alerts.
Bad lettuce and wildfire smoke
The CDC outbreak update released on Friday, July 24, reports 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cases since May 1. The CDC announced that an additional 7,400 cases, many in Michigan and Ohio, remain unconfirmed.
In this CDC update, the number of states reporting cases has increased to 41, but not all of those cases may be part of an ongoing outbreak.
A USA TODAY investigation suggests that all but four states have reported cases of cyclosporiasis, an infectious disease caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora and known to cause severe diarrhea.
Apart from the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak, wildfire smoke from the Canadian wildfires is turning the skies black in some parts of the United States under orange flames.
Smoke from out-of-control wildfires has caused severe air pollution in Toronto, making it the worst in the world on July 15. New York City was ranked the fifth worst city in the United States, according to Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.
USA TODAY’s Mike Snider, Karina Zaiets, Yoonserk Pyun and Janet Loehrke contributed to this report.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact us at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow us at X @fern_cerv_.
