‘Tariffs have saved General Motors:’ Trump claims import taxes are helping GM — even as they will actually cost the company up to $3.5 billion

“They’ve come a long way. It’s amazing what tariffs will do for GM and what the election has done,” Trump said alongside GM CEO Mary Barra and other executives. “General Motors is doing fantastic… we’ve been very good to General Motors.”

He reiterated the same a day later. “The tariffs have saved General Motors,” he told Fox News on Tuesday morning in a nearly 20-minute phone interview.

GM’s regulatory filings tell a different story. The company estimated that Trump’s tariffs will cost them between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion this year, according to a July 21 quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A spokesperson for GM declined to comment and directed Moneywise to Barra’s latest earnings call where she reported continued growth for the company.

Effect of tariffs on the Big Three automakers

The “Big Three” Detroit automakers are all bracing for significant tariff charges in 2026. Ford Motor CFO Sherry House told investors in late April that the company expected to pay $1 billion in tariffs this year. In the case of Stellantis — the company producing Jeep, Chrysler, and Ram — it projected to pay 1.3 billion euros, or about $1.5 billion, in 2026.

Many of their vehicles are assembled with parts from Mexico and Canada, which has pushed automakers to realign their supply chains to limit exposure to on-again, off-again tariffs. In addition, the trade deal that established duty-free treatment for vehicles mostly made in North America is subject to renegotiation in the coming months.

The unstable business environment has only prodded GM to expand its ability to produce vehicles domestically.

“We haven’t made excuses. We’ve just continued to perform,” Barra said in an earnings call this month. She added that the company was “onshoring” a significant amount of manufacturing starting next year. Starting last year, GM pledged to spend at least $6 billion to expand domestic plants producing its signature full-sized trucks and SUVs. It aims to domestically produce two million units in 2027.

Trump’s “America First” pitch relies on bringing back factories and restoring the U.S’s manufacturing capabilities. He first imposed 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts in early April 2025, employing the same emergency legal authority used for the global import taxes that was later nixed by the Supreme Court in February.

Michigan, a slightly Democratic-leaning state that narrowly went for Trump in the 2024 election, has taken an economic hit from the president’s tariff policies. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, released a study that indicated tariffs cost Michigan families $1,000 annually.

The outlook for GM

Last week, GM raised its profit outlook by $500 million to between $14 billion and $16 billion for 2026. On Tuesday afternoon, GM was trading at about $90 per share, up about 11% from the start of the year.

The company has leaned into robust sales of its more expensive pickup trucks among other large models, even as Americans buy fewer new cars overall due to high gas prices and persistent inflation.

So far, GM customers haven’t swapped from buying trucks to smaller, more affordable models. “I think something would have to happen for a long period of time before people would make potentially a different decision,” Barra said on the earnings call. “We’re seeing strength.”