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General Motors reported Tuesday that Donald Trump’s tariff policies fueled a 35% decline in profits in the second quarter, continuing a trend of tariff-induced devastation hitting the American auto industry. And GM predicts more rough roads ahead.
As The Wall Street Journal reported:
General Motors said Tuesday that new tariffs on imported cars and auto parts took a $1.1 billion bite out of its bottom line. The company reported net income shrank 35% in the second quarter as President Trump’s automotive tariffs weighed on the company. GM, the largest automaker in the U.S. by sales, had already lowered its earlier profit guidance for 2025. Now the company says greater impacts from tariffs are expected to hit the carmaker in the third quarter, though it is maintaining its profit guidance for the full year.
Last year, during his presidential campaign, Trump portrayed himself as a savior of the auto industry in GM's home state of Michigan, despite evidence the auto industry was already strong. And ever since he took office, he's been an agent of chaos for the industry, instituting harmful tariffs and potentially undermining the long-term ability of U.S. auto companies to compete with China in the production of electric vehicles. (In positive news for GM, the company reported Tuesday that it boosted sales in China during the quarter to $6.1 billion, up from $4.7 billion a year earlier. As The New York Times reported, GM sells some brands, such as Cadillac and Buick, in China as part of a partnership with SAIC Motor. Electric cars made up half of the vehicles sold as part of this partnership during the second quarter.)
Just last month, Bloomberg reported that Trump’s haphazard and legally questionable tariff war has caused a ripple of layoffs throughout the auto industry. Given this reality, and the host of other ways tariffs have wrought havoc on the U.S. economy and labor force, it should come as no surprise that a recent CBS News poll found 60% of Americans oppose Trump’s tariff war. That poll also found that 55% of Americans think the economy is getting worse under Trump.
With no clear end to Trump’s tariff war in sight, the prospect of that number increasing is well within the realm of possibility.