Detroit Axle CEO Mike Musheinesh tells CNN he sees no way to survive President Donald Trump’s most recent round of tariffs, and he warned that Trump has already run other car parts producers like him out of business.
“The first Trump administration, he levied tariffs back then. If we were to receive $1 million in [imported] products, we would pay $25,000 in tariffs. And today, for that same million dollars in products, we’re looking to pay $725,000 in tariffs to the federal government,” said Musheinesh, warning that his company was considering laying off employees and closing a company warehouse.
Musheinesh added that Trump’s chaotic method choosing who gets tariffs and how much they pay keeps undermining his company’s efforts—and the efforts of others — to survive. He warned that “dozens and dozens [of competitors] have exited the market already prior to us.”
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“You try to source products from different countries … It’s almost impossible to do, but we’ve done so,” Musheinesh told CNN anchor Jessica Dean. “We went to India to procure products from there, trying to save our consumers money, and now India is hit with tariffs. … We had operations in Mexico where we leveraged the de minimis exemption. And now they’re also — at the drop of a hat — gone. So, everywhere we turn, we’re starting to see more and more roadblocks. It’s been quite discouraging.”
Musheinesh said he is a fan of “reshoring our industry back to the U.S.,” and argued that it’s “very dangerous” to get “to the point where there’s absolutely nothing produced here in this country.”
However, he added that “setting an atmosphere and the environment conducive for entrepreneurs to be able to build and produce is important.”
“But none of that was done,” said Musheinesh. “All that I see done was just you slammed the tariff button. And I mean, you know, once upon a time, three months ago, we were paying $600,000 or $700,000 in tariffs, and now we’re north of $7 million a month in tariffs. So, all that revenue that was once used for investments and machinery and employment, it’s all gone and Uncle Sam owns it now.”
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