President Trump’s new 25% tariff on imported automobiles is long overdue.
To give the market time to adjust, rumors are that the president is considering a temporary exemption. Yet the media is still in full meltdown mode. “Consumers could pay more per vehicle!” they shriek, as if that settles the debate. Well, boo hoo. Maybe someone should’ve raised that concern back when Europe was slapping huge tariffs on our cars and flooding our market with theirs. Or when their carmakers started quietly stripping away basic safety features Americans rely on. (RELATED: COREY LEWANDOWSKI: Donald Trump Is A Juggernaut That Can’t Be Stopped)
In 2024, the European Union sold $43.9 billion worth of cars to America, while U.S. auto sales to Europe totaled less than $9 billion. Consumer preferences can explain some of the gap, but not all of it. Before Trump took action, the U.S. imposed a tariff of just 2.5% on European cars, compared to the EU’s 10% tariff on American automobiles.
And while Brussels and their corporate partners love to lecture us on the need for stronger vehicle safety standards, with some European Union officials even planning to hold a hard line on those inflated standards in their tariff negotiations with President Trump, their actions tell a different story.
For example, European manufacturers have been systematically removing AM radios from their new vehicles, despite repeated pleas from police departments, first responders, and U.S. emergency officials to keep them.
When disaster strikes, whether it’s a hurricane, wildfire, or terror attack, AM is often the only reliable way to broadcast emergency alerts as power and cell towers quickly go down. That’s why the government made AM radio the number one source of powering the National Public Warning System. But the carmakers don’t care. They’d rather force consumers to use their infotainment devices — which collect and sell their third-party data — than protect American lives.
The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act that Trump’s Federal Communications Commission is pushing is part of the same larger message the tariff is designed to send: You don’t get to sell your products here while undermining America’s economic interests or public safety. If you want access to our market, you’ll get it on our terms.
Trump’s new tariff is not about next quarter’s sticker prices—it’s about long-term leverage. It’s about fairness. And it’s about reshaping a rigged system that’s been bleeding American workers and manufacturers for decades.
Yes, some prices might go up in the short term—but that’s the price of ending a one-sided deal. In no time at all, the tariffs will bring auto production back to the U.S., which will mean more American jobs, more American factories, and lower prices driven by fair competition—not government-subsidized imports.
The immediate response from foreign carmakers like Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen’s Audi division has been full-on panic. They’ve even resorted to letting their cars pile up at U.S. ports instead of delivering them to dealers.
Why? It’s not because they’re worried the cars won’t sell. It’s because they don’t want to pay the tariff and they’re hoping Trump might change his mind and give them a special carve-out. Too bad. The president understands that it’s not our job to protect the profits of foreign conglomerates.
Trump isn’t the first president to take decisive action to protect this country’s auto industry. In 1981, Japan’s state-subsidized auto industry was flooding the U.S. market. Detroit couldn’t keep up.
Did the newly inaugurated President Reagan shrug his shoulders and mumble something about the “free market”? No. He threatened Japan with massive tariffs unless they agreed to freeze auto exports to the U.S. at 1979 levels. If they wanted to keep increasing their market share, they’d have to make their Hondas and Toyotas right here in America.
What followed was a renaissance of U.S. auto manufacturing. Prices rose slightly in the short term, but the benefits far outweighed the costs.
First, Japanese carmakers spent billions building assembly plants in America, directly creating over 26,000 jobs in just 10 years. Once the assembly plants were here, it also made sense to do component and materials manufacturing in the U.S., boosting the job creation numbers to over 100,000. This in turn created a skilled auto industry workforce, which led car companies from other nations — including Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen — to move some of their production to the U.S. as well.
It’s happened before, and it can happen again. Europe can either start buying our cars or start making their cars here. Either way, the gravy train is over. America will start winning again.
Let EU automakers and bureaucrats complain all they want. They’re like a bully who spends all of recess pinching you and then runs crying to the teacher the first time you punch back. They didn’t care when American manufacturers were losing market share, or when safety features like AM radio were quietly yanked out of our cars.
The Europeans shouldn’t be surprised that the U.S. finally decided to retaliate. They should be surprised it took us this long.
Corey R. Lewandowski was a senior adviser to the Donald J. Trump presidential campaign in 2024 and 2020 and campaign manager during the 2016 campaign.
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