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Trump Scales Back Tariffs on Auto Industry
Above: Vehicles on the production floor at the General Motors assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana on April 9, 2024. Image copyright: Emily Elconin/Contributor/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
Trump believes that having such a large volume of cars and auto parts being manufactured abroad is a threat to the country's national security. These tariffs will help bring these important jobs back to America, and the new modifications give time to the carmakers to shift their manufacturing base.
Pro-establishment narrative
While the heads of the biggest U.S. car manufacturers have come out and thanked Trump for taking on their concerns, the bottom line is that these tariffs still throw a lot of disruption and uncertainty into the supply chain, meaning that the cost of a car is likely going to rise — hitting not only the consumers but making it more difficult for the carmakers as well.