General Motors and Ford thanked US President Donald Trump this Wednesday for imposing tariffs on pick-up trucks manufactured in Mexico and Canada, according to the president himself.
“Mary Barra, from General Motors, and Bill Ford, from Ford Motor Company, just called me to thank me for imposing tariffs on medium and large size trucks,” Trump said in a message on his social network, Truth Social.
The president added that Barra and Ford confessed to him that “without tariffs, it would be a very hard and long ‘fight’ for truck and car manufacturers in the United States.”
According to Trump’s account, his response to Barra and Ford was that the tariffs are “a matter of national security.”
“With tariffs, we have a strong and powerful economy and country. Without them, we have exactly the opposite!” he added.
GM produces large Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks at its plants in Silao, Mexico, and Oshawa, Canada, as well as in the states of Indiana and Michigan.
For its part, Ford produces pick-up trucks in Hermosillo (Mexico) as well as in Michigan, Missouri and Kentucky.
On Tuesday, GM released its financial results for the third quarter of the year, a period in which it obtained net profits of $1,327 million, 56.6% less than in 2024, due to tariffs and Trump’s policies on electric vehicles (EV).
GM warned that Trump’s decision to eliminate tax credits to encourage the sale of EVs will substantially reduce demand for these vehicles in the future, which is why it assumed losses of nearly $1.6 billion in the quarter after making large investments in the segment.
Despite this, GM CFO Paul Jacobson said that Trump’s policies against EVs have returned their demand to a “more natural” position.
“We can be successful with EVs even in a lower demand environment, but one that is much more natural than the really artificial environment we’ve been in, which was really driven by regulatory compliance,” Jacobson stated.
With information from EFE.
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