President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Tuesday to ease auto tariffs, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced, the latest abrupt shift in a rapidly changing tariff policy that has left businesses scrambling to keep up.
“President Trump has had meetings with both domestic and foreign auto producers, and he’s committed to bringing back auto production to the US,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday, speaking alongside Leavitt. “So we want to give the automakers a path to do that quickly, efficiently and create as many jobs as possible.”
Leavitt and Bessent offered scant details of what the forthcoming executive order could include. “I can tell you that it will go substantially toward reshoring American auto manufacturing,” Bessent said.
While automakers said they welcomed the reprieve, Trump’s rapid changes in tariff policy in just his first 100 days have stoked uncertainty and economic anxiety among business leaders, investors and ordinary Americans alike.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Trump is set to announce a new tariff structure for cars that avoids stacking tariffs on top of other import taxes already in place. Currently, there’s a 25% tariff on almost all imported cars as well as 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, two metals heavily used in cars.
“This deal is a major victory for the President’s trade policy by rewarding companies who manufacture domestically, while providing runway to manufacturers who have expressed their commitment to invest in America and expand their domestic manufacturing,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement to CNN on Monday.
