In March 2025, the top executives at Detroit’s automakers scrambled to get ahead of what they feared would cripple their companies: President Donald Trump’s much talked-about tariffs.
As the Detroit Free Press reported, the companies’ CEOs and executive chairs held meetings and calls with Trump and his administration, hoping to talk the president out of the idea of assigning steep tariffs to imported cars and car parts.
The U.S. automakers argued that even for the vehicles they assembled in the States, many parts used in production were imported, and paying the tax to bring those parts over the border would add up to billions of dollars in added costs.
The Detroit Free Press was first to report on some meetings and calls between General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Ford Motor Co.’s Executive Chair Bill Ford and Trump’s team in late March 2025.
Book reveals behind-the-scenes call
In the new book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” the authors, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, have included a peek at the behind-the-scenes efforts the Detroit Three put forth in a failed attempt to stop Trump from imposing what became a 25% tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts.
The book notes how, in early 2025, all of corporate America had hired consultants to try to dissuade Trump, with many business leaders clinging to the hope that Trump only viewed tariffs as tools to use as bargaining leverage when making deals with other nations and would not actually impose them. But soon, the Detroit Three would learn the seriousness of Trump’s tariffs, the book said.
“In an early March call with three titans of the American auto industry — Stellantis (Chairperson) John Elkann, Ford CEO Jim Farley, and General Motors CEO Mary Barra — the president broke some tough news. Auto executives, echoing leaders across other sectors, had been making the case that the supply chains underpinning their industry would be thrown into chaos — and the industry itself crippled — by Trump’s 25% tariffs on vehicles from Mexico and Canada.”
Trump had paused the implementation of tariffs by a month, offering a little reprieve. But the book said he told Elkann, Farley and Barra during that call that “they all needed to buckle up” and “get on board” because the full tariff implementation would go into effect on April 2, a day that Trump dubbed “Liberation Day.”
“According to Barra, Elkann, and Farley, billions in new costs would be heaped onto their companies — wiping out profits entirely — if tariffs hit cars and parts coming from Mexico and Canada. Liberation Day for General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (whose brands included Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati) could well mean liberation from making profits,” the book said.
Trump listens to an ‘elegant voice’
Trump was not moved by the automakers’ pleas, the book said. In fact, it appears the only one to move him was Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who called Trump on March 6, 2025, requesting a delay on tariffs. She got her wish, in part because Trump liked the sound of her voice.
“You’ve got an elegant voice,” Trump told Sheinbaum, according to the book.
On March 26, just days before the so-called Liberation Day, the Detroit Free Press learned that Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford went to the nation’s capital to meet with the Trump administration, hoping to win either another reprieve or some mitigation from the tariffs. Similarly, GM’s Barra held meetings with members of the administration, not necessarily in person, sources told the Detroit Free Press at the time. Bill Ford’s and Barra’s meetings were independent of each other, but the intention was the same: to address the impact tariffs would have on their companies.
The efforts proved futile because on April 2, Trump imposed the 25% tariffs and then he imposed 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, both of which the automakers use in the production of their vehicles.
The toll of tariffs
The fallout has taken a toll on all three. For 2025, Ford spent roughly $2 billion on tariffs, GM had more than $3 billion in gross tariff expenses and Stellantis was hit with $1.7 billion in tariff costs.
Stellantis posted a loss in profits for the year, in part due to the costs to change its business strategy, but tariff costs and challenges factored into the loss and its UAW workforce did not receive profit-sharing checks for 2025.
At Ford, some union members got profit-sharing checks worth up to $6,780, but it was one of the lowest payouts in years in part due to the cost of tariffs and a disruption in Ford’s truck production after two fires last fall at Ford’s primary aluminum supplier’s factory in New York stalled aluminum shipments.
At GM, workers saw checks up to $10,500 for the company’s performance in 2025, but again it was among the lowest profit-sharing payouts for workers.
But Trump’s hope that tariffs would spur more U.S. manufacturing did work.
The Detroit Three have announced major capital investments and moves to bring production of vehicles, engines, and battery assembly lines either back to the United States or to expand domestic footprints. The moves are mostly in response to less-than-anticipated demand for electric vehicles and tariff costs.
Farley’s response to Trump
Meanwhile, Trump’s engagement with the Detroit automakers continued. In December 2025, in the Oval Office with executives from the Detroit Three around him, Trump proposed that carmakers start thinking about making tiny, inexpensive cars for the U.S. market that are similar to ones popular in Japan. Trump said it would offer Americans access to more affordable new cars.
As Farley and Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa nodded politely at the idea of the tiny cars, called kei cars in Japan, they seem to know the idea would hit the brakes beyond the doors of the Oval Office. But Trump brought it up again to Ford’s top executives during his Jan. 13 factory tour at Rouge Center in Dearborn — where Ford makes its full-size F-150 pickup.
“The president today asked me, ‘Can you sell kei cars here in the U.S.?’ ” Farley told the media on the sidelines of the Detroit Auto Show the evening of Jan. 13. When asked how Farley responded to Trump’s question, he said, “I worked at the Scion brand (Toyota) and brought that into the country and I loved that little car. But we’ll continue to look at the market. Affordability is a priority for us. But frankly a small minivan for six people in the U.S., I’m not sure that will be a high ticket.”
Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer for USA TODAY Co. who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Book offers behind-the-scenes view of Detroit 3 fighting Trump tariffs
Reporting by Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
