Tariff of the day: Trump re-introduces 25% tax on every foreign car.

Photo above - screen shot from the 1983 film Wargames. "Is this a game, or is it real?"

I just cannot keep up with Trump's constantly changing tariff landscape. The US customs department and import websites probably can’t either. Today we’re back to having 25% tariffs on every foreign car. And cars assembled in America with substantial foreign components See link below.

Who the hell wants this? The UAW didn’t even vote for Trump. They voted democrat, because Biden walked their picket line to snag them $140,000 wage contracts. Just before the Fed jacked mortgage rates to the moon because of auto and food inflation.

Detroit doesn’t want this either. I bet Ford can’t even figure out which cars and trucks meet the threshold of foreign made content, and will be crushed by the new taxes. Is the tax based on the cost of those foreign parts? The number of parts? Does an entire V8 engine from Canada count as one part, or 5,289 parts? Geesus, Donald . . .

Clearly this has nothing to do with Fentanyl. Canada could completely shut off the 0.02% share of Fentanyl that trickles through them to the USA, and the 25% tax would still apply. And to cars made in England, Germany, Austria, Italy, Australia (yeah GM has factories there) South Korea, Japan . . .

Hey, dumbass. China and Russia are the problem, not Australia and South Korea. If you start imposing a 25% tax on refrigerators then things are really going to get crazy – 99% of those sold in America are made on the nice side of the demilitarized zone. "Life's Good". Tariffs aren't.

On election day in November I bought a 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid. It cost $33,600 out the door. I guess if I bought it next month, it would cost closer to $40,000? Is this supposed to make me get a Ford Explorer instead? Wait . . . I betcha half the parts in an Explorer collectively come from Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and the People’s Republic of China. (Go check while I continue my rant.)

About the only vehicle you can be sure is 100% made in America now the Tesla. And after donating umpteen millions to the Trump campaign, and then seeing his dealerships get firebombed, Musk is probably overjoyed that tariffs will apply to virtually every competing vehicle.

"This-is-some-bullshit" (quote from Resident Alien). If Biden was trying to pull this BS, Trump supporters would be chanting “lock him up”, 24/7. What a bunch of hypocrites!

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Trump announces 25% tariffs on imported cars, ratcheting up global trade war

Khenpal1 · M

Tesla still uses many Chinese parts for its EVs and could be hit by potential Trump tariffs. Just a quick reminder that when we refer to American-made cars, we mean vehicles with parts from both the USA and Canada, since the American Automobile Labeling Act doesn’t separate between the two.Starting April 2, a 25% tariff will be applied to all foreign cars entering the US. And if you thought that was bad, the White House also confirmed in a fact sheet shared on its website that auto parts will face the same 25% tariff, even if said parts are used in cars assembled in the States. Needless to say, automakers are now facing a serious logistical mess.To complicate matters further, automakers importing cars under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will get some temporary relief. However, that’s only until the Commerce Department figures out how to apply the tariffs. And, for now, USMCA-compliant auto parts will remain tariff-free, but don’t get too comfortable. That’s only until the bureaucrats decide how to tax non-US content.Tesla still relies on a decent chunk of Chinese parts, especially motors and batteries, and could be impacted by new tariff policies introduced by the next Trump administration. if you exclude the motors and batteries of the second-place Model 3 Long Range, it “has 40% Chinese content.” Similarly, the Cybertruck has 20%, with Chinese parts typically found in “seats, dashboard components, and so on https://www.carscoops.com/2025/03/teslas-are-the-most-american-made-cars-in-the-market/