Trump Says Higher Tariffs Will Draw More Manufacturing to US

President Donald Trump said Tuesday (March 11) that the tariffs his administration is imposing will pay off in investments in American factories and jobs.

In an address to the quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable, which was broadcast by CNBC, Trump said that while the tariffs themselves will bring money to the country, they are meant to encourage companies to shift their production to the U.S.

“The biggest win is not the tariff — that’s a big win, that’s a lot of money — but the biggest win is if they move into our country and produce jobs,” Trump said. “That’s a bigger win than the tariffs themselves.”

Trump said that the higher the tariffs go, the more likely companies are to build their products in the U.S. to avoid those tariffs, and that some car companies have already stopped their building of plants in Mexico in favor of building them in the U.S.

His remarks came at a time when the White House’s tariff efforts continue to sow worry on both Wall Street and Main Street.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Trump’s shifting trade policies have sparked caution among a range of businesses as consumers curb spending and that his refusal to say whether his policies could trigger a recession heightened concerns among investors.

During his Tuesday address at the Business Roundtable, Trump also spoke about the cuts being made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Trump said that in some cases his administration had planned to cut the size of agencies by 2% before DOGE adviser Elon Musk came in and said the cuts could be 80%.

“We had to do it carefully and we had some little hiccups — not big hiccups — but we saved a tremendous amount of money for the future,” Trump said. “This is going into the future. In some cases, it would be 80%, in some cases, it would be 5% or 2% or 3%, depending on the agency.”

Like the tariffs, these cuts have had an impact on the economy. It was reported Tuesday that United Airlines now expects its first-quarter earnings to come in at the lower end of its forecast because it has seen government-related travel bookings drop 50% and government spending cuts impact the domestic leisure market.