President Donald Trump told NBC News that he “couldn’t care less” if his proposed 25 percent tariffs, set to take effect this week, cause automakers to raise prices on new cars.
This came after NBC News asked if he had warned automakers not to raise prices in response to tariffs, as the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Trump replied thusly:
“The message is congratulations, if you make your car in the United States, you’re going to make a lot of money. If you don’t, you’re going to have to probably come to the United States, because if you make your car in the United States, there is no tariff.”
When NBC pressed on whether he said what WSJ reported, he denied it.
From NBC News:
No, I never said that. I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars.”
Trump continued, “I couldn’t care less. I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty.”
Asked if he was concerned about car prices going up, Trump said, “No, I couldn’t care less, because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they’re going to buy American cars.”
NBC said an aide to Trump followed up with the outlet to say Trump was referring specifically to foreign-car prices.
This where we’ll note that the tariffs will also apply to car parts built in foreign countries — and even cars built in the U.S. use parts supplied from overseas. So a car built on U.S. soil won’t be unaffected by tariffs if it uses foreign-sourced parts — it’s unclear if President Trump knows and understands this.
Most, if not all, vehicles built in the U.S. use at least some amount of parts sourced from overseas.
Vehicles and parts built in Mexico and Canada will be tariff-free, at least for a while, if they’re compliant with the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Trump also told NBC the tariffs are permanent.
[Image: Andrew Harnik/Shutterstock.com]
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