Trump Signs Far-Reaching Auto Tariffs, Predicts Massive Economic Benefits For U.S.

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On Wednesday, President Trump touted his major new auto tariffs in the Oval Office.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:00It's off to the races. I think our automobile business will flourish like it's never flourished

00:05before. Yes, please, Will. Thank you, sir. As you stated, we've prepared for your attention

00:09a proclamation imposing a 25% tariff on foreign made cars and light trucks. This is in addition

00:16to tariffs that are already in place on those goods. In addition to, as you said, spurring

00:23increased domestic manufacture of cars and trucks, we expect that these tariffs will result

00:30in over $100 billion of new annual revenue to the United States of America in tariff revenue.

00:37I think ultimately we could probably anywhere from $600 billion to $1 trillion will be taken

00:46in over the relatively short term period, meaning a year from now. But starting right

00:54away, starting right away, I think we'll go from 600 to a trillion within two years.

01:00And I think we'll be very, I mean, right from the beginning, we're going to be at a very high

01:03number right from the beginning. And right from the beginning, you're going to have a lot of

01:08construction jobs, but you're also going to have a lot of automobile jobs. So this is very exciting.

01:13But it's also exciting because of what's happening with other aspects. We're going to be doing

01:18tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back. We don't make

01:24anything here for, in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need,

01:31medicines. It's in other countries, largely made in China. A lot of it made in Ireland.

01:37Ireland was very smart. We love Ireland. But we're going to have that. We're going to have lumber.

01:43We're going to free up some of our land. And you'll be able to meet a lot of other standards,

01:48like fire cuts. If Los Angeles had fire cuts, which they didn't have, that's a gap of half

01:54a football field between areas, you wouldn't have had the fires. They would have been contained.

02:00But you have fire cuts. And by the way, you sell that wood for a lot of money, a lot of

02:04profit is made from that. But we're going to be doing lumber. We're freeing up our land so that

02:08people can — so that we don't have to use outside sources of lumber. Energy, we're doing fantastically

02:14well at. You know, the energy prices have been coming down rapidly as we increase supply,

02:20and we've already done that. We have — Chris and Doug are doing a fantastic job in that. That's

02:25Department of Energy and Department of Interior. And they're working together, hand in hand,

02:31because Interior has the land and Energy has the ability to do the drilling and do

02:37what they have to do. Our coal areas are going to be opened up for clean, beautiful coal.

02:44Germany is opening up many coal plants now. You know, they tried the wind and it didn't work.

02:48They almost went out of business. They almost went bankrupt. They tried wind, which is a disaster

02:52because it's too expensive and it doesn't look good. It kills all the birds. A lot of problems.

02:57But Germany is now building a lot of coal plants. China is building one a week. Think of that.

03:04And they're using coal, which is very powerful. Coal is a very powerful energy.

03:08And we're opening up our coal mines again, and we're going to do — I call it beautiful,

03:14clean coal. The technology is so good now that coal can give you tremendous power. At the same

03:20time, it can be very clean. But we're also, obviously, doing oil and gas and various other

03:25things. You can do pretty much whatever you want. We don't like the wind because we think

03:29it ruins the landscapes, the plains, ruins them. And it's got a lot of problems. It's also the

03:35most — by far, the most expensive energy. It looks horrible in the oceans. It's dangerous

03:42in the oceans in terms of navigation. And if you look at what's happening with whales, you know,

03:47in one area, they lost two whales, like, in 20 years washed ashore. And this year,

03:56they had 17 washed ashore. So there's something happened out there. There's something driving the

04:01whales a little bit loco. But they lost two in 20 years, and now they lost 17 in a short period of

04:07time. So it's something wrong out there. So this is very exciting. This is going to lead to the

04:13construction of a lot of — a lot of plants and a lot, in this case, auto plants. And you're going

04:18to have — you're going to see numbers like you haven't seen, both in terms of employment.

04:22It takes a little while. You're going to have great construction numbers initially,

04:26and then you're going to have — ultimately, you're going to have a lot of people making a

04:29lot of cars. And one other thing, we are trying — we have the Speaker of the House with us,

04:34who's doing a fantastic job. And where is Mike? And we're trying to get approved. Mike,

04:40thank you very much for being here. We're trying to get approved, if we can. If you borrow money

04:46to buy a car, you're allowed to deduct interest payments for purposes of income tax, but only if

04:53the car is made in America. So if the car is made in America, you get a loan, you can deduct the

04:58interest. That's a big saving. A lot of people in that part of the world, in terms of buying cars,

05:05a lot of them don't think in terms of deductions. People that think in terms of deductions are

05:10very wealthy people. But people are going to start understanding what a good deduction is

05:15all about. So when you get a loan to buy a car — and I think it's going to pay for itself. I don't

05:22think there's any cost. I think that's going to — you're going to have so many cars built.

05:27But you're only going to get that deduction of interest if the car is made in the United States

05:33of America. So I'm going to sign this. And, Mike, I hope you can get that because I think it's going

05:37to be amazing in terms of the number of cars that are going to be made because of it.

05:42And I want to thank Howard Lutnick, our fabulous Commerce Chairman. That's what he is. He's a

05:50chairman. He's a very successful guy, a great guy. And we have a big day, Howard, coming up

05:55next week. Liberation Day. That's Liberation Day. That's going to be on the 2nd. And that's

06:00going to be reciprocal. And I think people will be impressed. We're going to be — we're going

06:05to be very fair. We're going to be very nice, actually. We have not been treated nicely by

06:10other countries, but we're going to be nice. So I think people will be pleasantly surprised.

06:15But it's going to make our country very rich because we're the piggy bank that everybody

06:20steals from. And they've been doing it for many years, for decades. And we're not going to let

06:25it happen. So — but we're going to treat people very nicely. We're going to treat other countries

06:30very, very nicely. And I think it's going to have a very positive effect on everybody,

06:35including those other countries. So I'll sign this. And we will see you again on

06:41April the 2nd. In terms of this, it's going to be another round.

06:45And it's about making America great again, making it strong and prosperous again.

06:49Thank you very much.

06:51So, Mr. President, on tariffs — can I ask you about tariffs? Mr. President,

06:54on the car tariffs, how do you assure that a car coming into the country is fully built?

07:00Could an automaker in Germany say, leave the tires off a car?

07:03We're going to have very strong policing, and it's pretty easy to do. If parts are made in

07:10America and a car isn't, those parts are not going to be taxed or tariffed.

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