Trump Imposes 25% Tariffs on Imported Automobiles and Parts

President Donald Trump signed an order Wednesday (March 26) that imposes 25% tariffs on imports of automobiles and certain auto parts, according to a thread posted on X by the White House’s Rapid Response 47 account.

The thread said the tariffs aim to stop a flood of imports that threatens the country’s industrial base and exposes it to global supply chain vulnerabilities. It added that they aim to reverse a stagnation in U.S. production, a $93.5 billion annual trade deficit in auto parts, and a 34% reduction in auto parts manufacturing jobs since 2000.

“This is very exciting to me,” Trump said in a video shared in another post by Rapid Response 47. “This is the automobile industry, and this will continue to spur growth like you haven’t seen. Before I was elected, we were losing all of our plants — they were being built in Mexico and Canada and other places. Now those plants largely have stopped and they’re moving them to our country.”

In addition to spurring domestic manufacturing, the order will bring in over $100 billion of new annual tariff revenue, White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said in a video shared in another post by Rapid Response 47.

Trump added in that video that the tariffs will create construction jobs immediately as well as manufacturing jobs.

The new tariffs will go into effect April 2, and the U.S. will start to collect them the following day, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The report said that Trump said that the tariffs will be “permanent” and that he is not interested in negotiating exceptions.

Trump is expected to announce a broad range of reciprocal tariffs on April 2, designed to drive down other countries’ trade barriers by applying rates that match the tariffs each country imposes on American imports, according to the report.

In addition, Trump has threatened to impose industry-specific tariffs on lumber, semiconductors and pharmaceutical drugs, the report said.

It was reported March 11 that American car buyers were speeding up their shopping due to tariff worries. With tariffs on the way, these buyers were scrambling to get to car lots.