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Eugene

(64,200 posts)
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:33 AM Monday

Trump says auto tariffs are permanent and doesn't care if they cause carmakers to hike prices -- 'I hope they raise their

Source: Fortune

Trump says auto tariffs are permanent and doesn’t care if they cause carmakers to hike prices — ‘I hope they raise their prices’

Jason Ma
Sat, March 29, 2025 at 7:44 PM EDT·3 min read

• President Donald Trump shrugged off concerns that his auto tariffs will cause carmakers to raise prices, saying he couldn't care less if they do. In an interview with NBC News, he added that, "I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars." But even cars assembled in the US have foreign-made parts.

President Donald Trump said his new auto tariffs are permanent and shrugged off concerns that they will cause carmakers to raise prices.

In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, he was asked about a recent Wall Street Journal report that said he warned auto CEOs not to hike prices while discussing tariffs with them.

"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 replied.

He added, "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."

-snip-

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-auto-tariffs-permanent-234415834.html

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Yes MAGA person, Donald Trump will use his renowned business acumen to fight for you! /sarc

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walkingman

(9,016 posts)
1. Why would he care? He is part of the class that hasn't driven for most of his life. What a loser.
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:38 AM
Monday

There is only one person he cares about and that is himself.

genxlib

(5,856 posts)
2. Somehow he believes
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:47 AM
Monday

That American cars won't also get more expensive.

Even if they were entirely made here (which they aren't), the laws of supply and demand dictate that there will be a greater demand for the cars that are not subject to the tariffs and we all know what happens then... Well, we do but apparently he doesn't.

The idiocy here is that he has personally destroyed the only argument for tariffs. In a stable environment, it would encourage more domestic production. But that only works on the timeframe of decades. No business is going to alter their manufacturing strategy based on the whims of a madman. He has already shown himself to be erratic in the implementation of all sorts of tariffs. Does anyone believe that a company will invest in a multi-billion dollar plant knowing that this policy may not survive the week? Or worse, that it may get reversed after they invest all that money.

sop

(13,400 posts)
3. Trump's right about one thing, there will be "plenty of cars" when no one can afford to buy one.
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:52 AM
Monday

MontanaMama

(24,355 posts)
4. American made cars often have parts
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 11:52 AM
Monday

that are imported from Canada and Mexico, genius. Gawd he’s so stupid.

doc03

(37,634 posts)
5. If the tariffs raise pries on imported cars that will encourage the
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 12:01 PM
Monday

domestic car companies to raise their prices. Besides that, I don't know of any car that is
made in the US. There are cars assembled in the US from mostly foreign parts.

Bernardo de La Paz

(53,901 posts)
6. Even prices of 100% American cars will rise, and used car prices will rise
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 12:01 PM
Monday

... because they can be. When your competitors cars prices are raised 20% (because they are eating 5% of the 25%), there is every incentive to raise your prices by 10 percent, say.

Though of course 100% is a unicorn.

If your new car is 80% US and another new car is 60% US, tariff taxes will raise the price of the 60 more than the 80 car. And the 80 car maker will have incentive to raise the price more on the 80 car so they can not raise prices on the 60 car so much.

If new cars become too expensive for some, they don't put their current car on the used car market. Or they might buy a more recent used car, increasing demand for used cars.

All the ripple effects will reduce total unit volumes. That means fewer jobs for sales people, fewer manufacturing jobs, fewer trucker jobs, and so forth.

OrlandoDem2

(2,665 posts)
7. Let them eat cake. Marie Antoinette would be proud. Only thing is this.
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 02:03 PM
Monday

There’s no actual record she ever said that. We know what he said. It’s on record. And we know how things ended for her.

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