Ohioans whose livelihoods are inextricably linked to the automotive industry are in for a bumpy ride.
The Big Three automakers, who employ 86,000 workers in vehicle and parts manufacturing in the state, along with Honda’s strong presence, are grappling with escalating costs and tumbling profits as Trump’s tariffs take effect.
Cumulative tariff costs for U.S. automakers are pegged at nearly $4-5 billion this year, according to a recent study, roughly $5,000 per vehicle in parts.
Last week, General Motors and Stellantis, formerly Chrysler, announced bad news about their bottom lines.
GM said Trump’s tariffs on its biggest trading partners cost the company more than $1 billion in the second quarter of 2025.
Stellantis expects a $2.7 billion loss in the first half of the year, in part from tariffs. Ford Motor, and other import-heavy brands, face similar strains from tariffs.
Analysts predict Ford’s Q2 earnings will show a double-digit earnings decline when the company releases its numbers Wednesday.
But understand this: the financial tumult of tariffs eating into U.S. carmakers’ profit margins will reverberate in factory hubs throughout Ohio when import costs cannot be sustained without steep markups on cars people won’t buy.
We’ve seen this movie before. If inventory isn’t moving, plants cut shifts. Layoffs mount as unsold vehicles pile up in dealership lots.
When that happens — and it sure appears to be the tariff-induced trajectory we’re on — it won’t just be tens of thousands of Ohio manufacturing jobs that will be affected by declining car sales and plummeting company profits.
Several times that many people in the state are employed by businesses that serve automakers and their families. The impact of the auto industry on Ohio’s economy cannot be overstated.
The toll of Trump’s irrational trade war with Mexico and Canada, Ohio’s largest trading partner, will ultimately be paid by Jeep workers in Toledo, employees at the Ford assembly plant in Avon Lake, the Lima engine plant, the GM stamping and metal plant in Parma and others.
These are Ohioans earning solid wages (average salary is $29.85 an hour or $62,097 a year, according to ZipRecruiter) with better benefits.
Many are Trump supporters but he is directly jeopardizing their success stories by threatening to hike tariffs even higher on Mexico and Canada — 30% and 35%, respectively — on Friday.
Adding insult to injury, Trump further undercut U.S. car companies last week by lowering tariffs for Japanese imports to 15% while GM, Ford and Stellantis still pay 25% tariffs for cars they manufacture in Canada and Mexico.
The American Automotive Policy Council, that represents the Detroit Big Three, said “any deal that charges a lower tariff for Japanese imports with virtually no U.S. content is a bad deal for the U.S. industry and U.S. autoworkers.”
But despite the pressing concerns of American automakers that Trump’s plan could give Japanese automakers unfair advantage, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick brushed off the complaints with his trademark, tone-deaf drivel.
“Oh my God, that’s just so silly,” Lutnick sputtered on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. American auto companies don’t mind the discrepancy in tariff costs that favor a foreign competitor, he brayed. They’re “cool with” paying higher tariff fees than Japan,
Lutnick assured absolutely no one.
Does the commerce secretary really believe domestic automakers and suppliers are “cool with” the cost of business rising astronomically? Or jacking up consumer prices on vehicles that inevitably reduce sales? Will the Big Three be “cool with” massive job losses at shuttered factories?
It is absurd blather from a billionaire carrying water for another billionaire lost in magical economic thinking.
Trump promised a new “golden age” in U.S. manufacturing courtesy his nonsensical trade war with some of America’s closest allies.
The “very stable genius” insisted his barrage of tariffs, with little discernible rationale, will generate a domestic manufacturing boom like no other — contravening every fundamental taught in ECON 101.
“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country,” declared the felon (with multiple bankruptcies) based on nothing.
But instead of roaring back, U.S. manufacturers are in a slump.
In just the second quarter of this year they are reeling with oppressive import costs they are forced to offset with prices increases on products buyers can no longer afford.
Tack on more tariff charges (taxes) for other imported material (steel and aluminum) on top of EV (electric vehicles) incentives, such as tax credits, going away and tell me again how the Big Three are “cool with” unsustainable losses caused by a seemingly addled 79-year-old with a nostalgic tick for the 1950s.
Second quarter numbers scream for course correction but Trump is on a tariff power trip that defies reason.
His economic policy (?) — driven by impulse and flattery — could set American competitiveness in manufacturing back decades and increase the prospects of more hollowed out communities like Youngstown, Ohio.
Trump promised an economic renaissance there, too. Remember?
In 2017 he said all the lost auto jobs, that used to fill the GM Lordstown parking lot with 4,500 employees, would come roaring back.
The exact opposite happened. GM cut the second shift at Lordstown in 2018. A year later the plant would close for good.
Trump betrayed those who elected him and never looked back. Is he doing that again by risking auto-dependent livelihoods in the state with reckless trade wars to no end?