“If you build a car in the US, you’ll make a lot of money,” he said.
President Donald Trump said on March 29 that he didn’t ask the car CEO to avoid raising prices according to cleaning fees, saying that if he did so with a foreign-made car “we couldn’t have been too concerned.”
The Trump administration is poised to collect 25% tariffs on all foreign-made cars and components on April 2nd. This is given a temporary exception to companies importing vehicles or parts under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), according to the White House, until the government creates a process to apply those duties.
“Congratulations on this message. If you build a car in the US, you’ll make a lot of money, or you’ll probably have to come to the US because if you build a car in the US there’s no tariff,” Trump said.
“No, I never said that. People started buying American-made cars, so if they were going to raise prices, I couldn’t really care much,” he said. “We couldn’t care much. We hope they will raise prices. If so, people will buy American-made cars. We have a lot.”
The president emphasized that he is not worried about rising car prices.
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“No, because when foreign cars go up, they’ll buy American cars,” Trump said.
After the interview, one of the president’s aides revealed to NBC that Trump is particularly talking about rising foreign car prices. The Epoch Times requested the full transcript of the call from NBC.
Trump also said that a 25% tariff on foreign cars and components is permanent.
“Absolutely, they are certainly permanent. The world has taken America for over 40 years, and everything we do is fair and frankly, I am very generous,” he said.
The tariffs, which he calls the “liberation date,” are expected to come into effect on April 2nd, also collide with a variety of other consumer goods. Trump said on Saturday he would prefer to delay the implementation of these tariffs further, but will consider negotiations.
The Trump administration has said the tariff goal is to promote US manufacturing and equalize the trade deficits of nations around the world.
