President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday at the White House announcing a 25% tariff on all imported cars. Shortly thereafter, Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and a close ally of Donald Trump, said in a post on social media platform X that Tesla had been hit hard by the tariffs.
“It is worth noting that Tesla is not unscathed and the tariffs still have a big impact on Tesla,” Elon Musk said in the post.
Elon Musk’s post on X. Credit: Musk X account
Later, Elon Musk responded in a related post, “To be clear, this will affect the price of Tesla Motors components from other countries, and the impact on costs can not be underestimated.”
Elon Musk’s post on X. Credit: Musk X account
In particular, Donald Trump said at the time of his order that he had not suggested any tariffs on cars or claimed any benefits from them.
Tesla sent a letter to the office of the US Trade Representative warning that steep tariffs would hurt American companies, US media reported on March 14. In his letter, Tesla said steep tariffs would drive up the cost of essential American imports. The trade dispute will also face retaliatory measures resulting in higher tariffs on US exports of electric vehicles, which are bound to disproportionately affect us exporters.