A year into the tariff experiment and the results are in: automakers have eaten $35 billion in costs, American families are paying an extra $1,500 a year, and thousands of autoworkers — the exact people these tariffs were supposed to protect — are sitting at home on indefinite layoff. GM just cut 900 workers at Fairfax. Stellantis workers at Sterling Heights got told not to come in because engines from Mexico aren’t showing up. The tariffs broke the supply chain and the workers got the bill.
So what’s the administration’s response to all this winning? More tariffs. USTR Jamieson Greer just announced new Section 301 investigations into trade partners for “excess manufacturing capacity,” which is bureaucrat-speak for “we’re going to find an excuse to tax imports even harder.” The first round didn’t bring jobs back — it just made everything more expensive and gave CEOs cover to lay people off. But sure, double down. That’s always worked.