.... says he will impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports

[Buyer2021]

More drama with the potential to affect vehicle prices (among other things).

Hang on and hang in there folks, there's just no telling what the goal or outcome might really be.

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[Highway 11]

79% of aluminum imported to the United States came from Canada. There will absolutely be an increase in F-150 prices. Super Duties I'm less sure about as a Canadian assembly line is supposed to start production in 2026, however I'm going to assume Ford would rather pocket the increased profit margin on a Canadian built Super Duty.

 

[HammaMan]

This is tit for tat tariffs on those who have tariffs on the US. China provided about 10% of US aluminum in 2023 and biden slapped them with a 25% tariff last sept as they're notorious for dumping and the 232 10% tariff added another 10% making it 35%.

Building up domestic industry could be more intelligently done, but the goal of these are to negotiate.

 

[UGADawg96]

The Over/Under on number of posts until this thread is locked has been set at 30.5 by BetMGM and 31.5 by Caesars Sportsbook.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

It will all come out on the wash…..I ain’t skeert!

 

[Larrymoe]

 

[powerboatr]

I refrain.
Therefore

32 % tariff to buy a us made vehicle in Germany and most of Europe
Where as it's less than 5,% tariff on German made vehicles into U.S.

Never mind the immense MB plant, campus in Alabama just outside Birmingham

It does matter

We as Americans can seige the opportunity and bring more manufacturers home
It may cost a bit more in short run
But it levels out in the long term
We get so focused on very short runs

That's why we get hammered
We need to pull a play from others
Immediate short term fixes and plan real long term meaniful changes set in law that lets us prosper

 

[JohnMcClane]

‘After intense negotiating with ourselves in the mirror for several hours they’ve conceded to do nothing and we’ve decided to pause these tariffs for a month’

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

Leveraging negotiations.
Tariffs are a tool.
Tools do the work of those who create them.

 

[Calson]

I know that with the first Trump tariff on aluminum from Canada one of his cronies who was in Europe profited enormously. My aluminum trailer increased in price by 25% overnight and the trailer was made in the USA. I was helping to pay for the tax cuts for corporations and the billionaires of the affluent elite ruling class which is normal.

 

[TopOMichXL]

The aluminum tube I use for fuel cells has always been made in the USA.
The last time tariffs were put on it, it was still made in the USA, it just cost 30 percent more. I had quoted prices for a few projects, and got burnt by that one.
The good news, someone in the USA profited nicely from the tariffs, and it certainly didn’t return the manufacturing of anything, so guys like me, an American worker, paid for it. Nice

 

[Suns_PSD]

More drama with the potential to affect vehicle prices (among other things).

Hang on and hang in there folks, there's just no telling what the goal or outcome might really be.

I don't claim to understand the in/ outs well enough to proclaim if this is a good policy or not.

However, your statement above is incorrect in regard to 'we don't know what the outcome might really be'. If the tariffs go through, the outcome will be increased prices for American consumers. It's just that simple. I'd also consider that a permanent situation. If Americans could supply these materials at the same costs, they would have already. We can't. So even if American production increases, it's going to now and forever costs consumers more.

If that penalty is worth it or not, I don't know. But I know I won't be buying a new truck as a result.

 

[HammaMan]

War has always been a brutal dance over resources—land, water, oil, rare metals. Energy, in particular, is the lifeblood of any nation aiming to dominate. A superpower isn’t born from ideals or diplomacy; it’s forged in the ability to control and harness resources at scale. The industrial capacity to build ships, planes, and bombs, the fuel to move them, and the raw materials to keep the machine running—these are what elevate a state above the rest. History shows this plainly: Rome’s legions marched on grain and iron, Britain’s empire sailed on coal and timber, and America’s global reach burns on oil and silicon.

The rising power in the east, hungry for dominance, knows this truth. Its appetite for energy -- coal, oil, and lithium -- grows as its cities swell and its factories churn. It secures pipelines, mines, and ports, often ignoring the human cost. Mass surveillance, forced labor, suppressed dissent are its tools, not burdens, for a state that prioritizes survival over morality. To them, human rights are a western luxury.

War hasn't magically slid into oblivion; it’s the natural rhythm of this rock. Tribes clashed over hunting grounds, empires over trade routes, and nations over oil fields. Peace is an abnormality antithetical to the natural life cycle. The US-led global order, an 80-year experiment, has lulled many into a normalcy bias, a belief that stability is the default. But this is an exception, not the rule. Those who see only the short-term gains of trade and treaties miss the long game; survival demands strength, and strength demands resources. When push comes to shove, nations don’t negotiate—they fight.

China imports 14% of their coal (and growing), 70% of their oil, and 31% of their NG. Their push into electrification and alternative energy production is done out of necessity -- oil imports are their weakness and there's only so much to be captured in their region. They may be supporting RU right now just enough to push them into an internal collapse so they can move on some of their neighbors and possibly retake manchuria as well as Sakhalin.

The U.S. has weakened its hand through offshoring. Factories moved overseas, supply chains stretched thin, and critical industries—steel, semiconductors, rare earths—now depend on foreign soil. If war comes, the nation’s ability to produce and sustain itself is compromised. Decades of chasing cheap labor and profit have traded resilience for efficiency, leaving the country vulnerable to a rival that has spent those same decades building up its own industrial core on our dime. We're not the same country that fought on 2 fronts and supplied allies during the last great war. Artillery shells are some of the easiest munitions to produce and those on the asian continent can supply them at greater than 7:1 vs the rest of the world combined. China currently holds more than half of global ship building capacity. If they neutralized SKs and JPs ship building capacity, that balloons up to over 80%.

Resources and energy define the battlefield. A rising power, unburdened by ethical constraints, will not hesitate to claim what it needs. War, as history proves, is the inevitable arbiter when stakes are this high. The US and allies must wake up to this reality, or risk being a footnote in the history of the red empire. Rattling the west awake is desperately needed right now. There are 4 jacking bridge dock barges already built for the taiwan invasion and that's just to acquire their future silicon manufacturing capabilities, and lock down a small island off their coast. These barges only have a single purpose so there's zero ambiguity as to what's being planned.

As the saying goes, there's no free lunch.

 

[roadPilot]

Avoid the tariffs by producing your products in the US. Period.

 

[Suns_PSD]

Just want to point out that we can't even get food picked or construction completed without immigrant labor. I don't see anyone wanting to make the crap that's on Alibaba for $3.99 shipped from China, even at 5x the price.

I mean, I'm America first but we are already operating at the lowest unemployment in history. It's a global economy. I suppose we can get everything from the US alone, and we'd all have a lot fewer nice items and the costs will skyrocket.

Right now, we have right at the top of the best quality of life in the world, that will certainly come to an end if you judge that by nice homes & cars and the other things that make life in the USA so abundant.

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