<a href="https://reason.com/2025/08/05/ford-paid-800-million-in-tariff-costs-over-3-months-despite-building-most-of-its-cars-in-america/" target="_blank">View original image source</a>.
When you think of American manufacturing, Ford Motor Company probably pops into your head. After all, they produced 1.8 million cars right here in the U.S. last year. However, it appears that all that patriotism comes with a price tag—$800 million, to be exact. That’s how much Ford spent on tariffs in just the second quarter of 2025. And guess what? This loss could knock $3 billion off their annual profits. Ouch!
Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, is pulling out all the stops as he talks to the Trump administration about potential relief. It seems a little ridiculous, doesn’t it? The very tariffs intended to stimulate American jobs and manufacturing are backfiring spectacularly. Plus, it’s not just Ford in trouble; General Motors claims it racked up over $1 billion from these same tariffs. Makes you wonder if anyone’s actually reading the fine print on these policies.
If that wasn’t ironic enough, Ford’s strong U.S. presence actually makes it more vulnerable to these tariffs compared to foreign competitors. The administration’s lower tariffs on cars imported from Japan and the EU amplify the issue, leaving American manufacturers scrambling for any scrap of relief they can find. With car prices poised to rise by 4 to 8 percent for consumers, the fallout from these tariffs is something that could hit every driver right in the wallet.
So what do you think—a mystery worth solving, or just the latest economic episode of “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up”? Wouldn’t it be nice if this was just a plot twist in a movie instead of reality? Let me know what you think in the comments!
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