President Donald Trump recently explained his decision to halt the tariffs that he intended to place on Canada and Mexico. 

Trump, according to Breitbart News, did so during a recent interview with the Fox Business Network

The interview was conducted by Maria Bartiromo, and it is expected to be broadcast in its entirety on Sunday Morning Futures.

Before we get to what Trump had to say, we will quickly look at his decision to half the tariffs.

Background

Last week, Trump was scheduled to place some hefty tariffs on both Canada and Mexico.

But, at the last moment - after talking with Mexican and Canadian officials - he called it off.

CBS News reported:

Mr. Trump announced the delay in the Mexico tariffs in a social media post after a call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. On Thursday afternoon, he signed two executive orders stating the exemptions would apply to U.S. imports of products from both Mexico and Canada that are covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Goods that are not covered by the agreement remain subject to tariffs.

The important thing to note, of course, is that this is just a temporary halt.

Trump is adamant about the fact that tariffs will still go into place on April 2.

Trump explains

During the Fox interview, Trump was asked why it is that he backed off the tariffs.

Bartiromo asked:

You spoke to the president of Mexico today. I want to talk about tariffs, because, even as you’re seeing this optimism and excitement, there’s some nervousness over your tariffs, markets have been selling off, people are not sure how to view it. Why did you roll back — or put a pause [on] some of the tariffs until April 2?

Trump went on to explain that he did so in order "to help Mexico and Canada"

He said:

Because I wanted to help Mexico and Canada to a certain extent. We’re a big, big country, and they do a lot of their business with us, whereas, in our case, it’s much less significant. We do very little with Canada by comparison. And I wanted to help the American carmakers, until April 2. April 2, it becomes all reciprocal, what they charge us, we charge them. It’s a big deal. But what they charge us, we charge them. But this is short-term and I felt that, for the good of the American carmakers and…the USMCA…I thought it would be a fair thing to do. And so, I gave them a little bit of a break for this short period of time.

It sure paints a different picture of Trump than the one put forth by the political left.