The auto industry is already feeling the effects of President Trump's broad and sweeping tariffs.
Days after the president's tariff announcement, Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge, announced that 900 people would be temporarily laid off. The affected U.S. employees work in factories across the Midwest, including Michigan, a state where the auto industry drives the economy and where voters helped elect Trump for a second presidential term.
Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan told Morning Edition that she cannot "overstate the level of instability and open questions about the future." She expressed concern for the auto workers and farmers in her state, many of whom were affected by Trump's tariffs during his first term.
"Trump did this in his first administration," Slotkin said. "I live on my family farm. We lease our farm to a soybean farmer. Soybeans were targeted in the tariff war in the first Trump administration. We've never made up market share from the markets we lost. China just stopped buying from us, and they went to Brazil and to Argentina. We just permanently lost that market."
"So we're waiting for the next shoe to drop, but it's a lot of instability," she added.
Trump maintains that tariffs will benefit U.S. manufacturers and strengthen the nation's position in the global trading system.
NPR's Michel Martin spoke to Slotkin about how the new tariffs are already affecting the people of Michigan.
The following excerpt has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
Michel Martin: What are you hearing from your home state, especially from autoworkers, since we're hearing that people are already being laid off?
Slotkin: I can't overstate the level of instability and open questions about the future. It to me, it's the same level of uncertainty from our business leaders, our auto workers, our farmers that we had during COVID five years ago, where you kind of don't know what's going to happen next.
Obviously, on the manufacturing side we are trying to understand what this is going to do. But I think it's hard to say that it won't do anything other than raise prices of cars.
But for me, we haven't yet seen the next chess moves from the other countries. China just this morning announced what their retaliation is. All these other countries are about to announce a retaliation and they get to pick and choose where it hurts us most. And so I'm very concerned about our farmers, which is a big part of our industry in Michigan.
Martin: You supported a resolution in the Senate to revoke the tariffs on Canadian goods. It did get some bipartisan support, but it's non-binding and it's unlikely to see a vote in the House. Congress is supposed to play a role in trade policy. The work around for this administration has been by declaring it an emergency.
What's the next step here?
Slotkin: I think everyone understands we need a 21st century trade policy. And there are plenty of countries that are cheating in the international system, particularly China. We understand that. I think it's just doing it strategically and responsibly and not this kind of slapstick way that they're doing it that risks raising prices and hurting the economy.
You're right. We passed this resolution. It was a non-binding resolution. But can we just take note, it was the first time that anything has passed in the House that pushes back on Trump's policies since he was sworn in.
Martin: I have to note that the tariffs are being pitched as a way to bring jobs back to the United States. We know that President Trump made inroads with union voters in his last campaign, including in your state.
Is your main goal or task right now to persuade your colleagues that this is bad economic policy or to persuade voters that they need to be more vocal that this is hurting them?
Slotkin: The voters, they understand their own pocketbooks. They may not understand the federal budget and all the ins and outs of all these things. They understand the price of a car. They understand the price of milk, coffee and sugar. They understand the basic things in their lives. So, we're going to see. We're going to see in the next couple of weeks what this does. No one wants anything other than to bring jobs back home, but people need some predictability. Things don't flip overnight.
China just today put a huge retaliatory tariff on rare earth minerals, we just don't dig a lot of rare earth minerals out of the ground in the United States of America. That doesn't happen overnight. So, I think people are going to start to feel that pain. And again, no one wants that. We don't want a recession. We don't want that pain. We want jobs back. And a strategic policy does that not this kind of slap stick approach.
This digital piece was edited by Treye Green and Kristian Monroe.
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