Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo didn’t seem too receptive Tuesday to hearing one way in which Donald Trump’s tariffs are already harming U.S. businesses.
After the tariffs—25 percent on imports from Mexico and Canada—took effect earlier in the day, Fox Business reporter Jeff Flock spoke with the owner of a Dodge Ram dealership in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.
“I sold an order for a customer–$80,000 truck. It’s $100,000 now, so he’s not going to buy the truck," David Delleher said. “It’s going to sit on my lot…and nobody’s going to buy the truck because it just had a $20,000 price increase.”
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Flock explained to Bartiromo that not only do some trucks get made in Mexico, but parts from there and Canada enter and leave the U.S. at several points.
“Those are going to get a whole lot more expensive going forward,” Flock said of the vehicles. “And it’s not just the trucks and vehicles that are made in Mexico, but all of the parts from Mexico and Canada [that] go back and forth across the border.”
When Flock sent it back to Bartiromo, she responded by saying that the trucks should be made in the U.S., which is what Trump has argued for.
“Thank you so much, Jeff Flock at Dodge Ram… dealership,” she said, before raising her voice. “But you know what? Let me ask you this, OK? How many Dodge Rams do you see around Europe, OK? How many Dodge Rams do you see driving around India? Not many, I bet. Why? Because they don’t buy our cars! And that’s what President Trump is trying to change. Maybe Dodge should start building them here and selling them here.”
That concept, while having “a lot of merit,” would still make for a “painful” transition for several reasons, said Chris McMahon, president of Aquinas Wealth Management.
“I think there’s a lot of merit to that, and I think we’re going to see more of that in more foreign cars coming into the States...which is wonderful, but there’s a couple big issues, right?” he told Bartiromo.
“Cars are being repossessed—I think it’s up 15 percent year-over-year, which is a big number. Interest rates are still too high for cars. Sales were down about 7.5 percent in January over the same time last year,“ McMahon went on, highlighting that the top three countries the U.S. imports from are Mexico, Canada, then China.
“This transition is going to be painful, and I think, Maria, we’ve got to get help from feds to reduce interest rates. I know it’s going to cause all kinds of problems, but unless car dealers get some relief, those $100,000 trucks are going to be sitting there longer, and that doesn’t benefit any of us.”
“No, and we’re already seeing an impact,” Bartiromo acknowledged. “The economy is expected to contract in the first quarter.”
Curiously, that bad news spurred Elon Musk and Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to seek a change in how economic growth is measured.
