On Tuesday, August 5, 2025, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer found herself seated in the Oval Office, facing President Donald Trump with a message he likely didn’t want to hear. Armed with a slide deck and a keen sense of the stakes, Whitmer pressed her case: Trump’s tariffs, meant to boost American manufacturing, were in fact threatening the very heart of Michigan’s economy—the automotive industry.
This was Whitmer’s third meeting with Trump since his return to the White House in January 2025, but unlike the previous, this one was behind closed doors. According to The Associated Press, the governor’s approach was markedly different from other Democratic leaders, who often choose public confrontation over private persuasion. “It’s a dynamic that Whitmer has navigated much differently from many other Democratic governors,” noted Matt Grossman, a politics professor at Michigan State University. Just securing the meeting was itself an achievement, given the tense partisan climate and Whitmer’s rising profile as a potential 2028 presidential contender.
Whitmer’s presentation, described as a visually compelling slide deck, laid out the hard numbers: Michigan’s auto jobs, nearly 600,000 strong, depend on a complex web of international trade. Since 2020, trade with Canada and Mexico alone has fueled $23.2 billion in investment in the state. General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis run 50 factories across Michigan, supported by more than 4,000 auto parts suppliers. The governor’s message was blunt—Trump’s tariffs were putting all of this at risk.
According to AP reporting, Whitmer told Trump that the economic damage from the tariffs could be severe. Michigan, after all, was a crucial swing state that helped deliver Trump his 2024 victory. But the president, according to those familiar with the conversation, made no specific commitments. Instead, he listened as Whitmer also requested federal aid for recovery after a recent ice storm and pushed to delay changes to Medicaid.
The numbers Whitmer cited were stark. Since Trump’s return to office, Michigan has lost 7,500 manufacturing jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The tariffs themselves are steep: 50% import taxes on steel and aluminum, 30% on parts from China, and a top rate of 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico not covered under a 2020 trade agreement. Just this past week, Trump threatened to slap a 100% tariff on computer chips—a critical component in modern vehicles—though he promised to exclude chips produced domestically.
While the White House has defended the tariffs, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told the AP, “No other president has taken a greater interest in restoring American auto industry dominance than President Trump.” Desai argued that new trade frameworks would open up Japanese, Korean, and European markets to Michigan-made vehicles. But, as the AP noted, the outreach Trump seems to prefer is often glitzier—think splashy presentations from tech CEOs. Just a day after Whitmer’s visit, Apple CEO Tim Cook presented Trump with a custom glass plaque and pledged $600 billion in investments. Trump himself claims to have secured $17 trillion in investment commitments, though, as AP pointed out, these numbers have yet to appear in official economic data.
For Michigan’s automakers, the reality on the ground is less rosy. The tariffs have put U.S. companies at a disadvantage compared to German, Japanese, and South Korean automakers, who now face only a 15% import tax thanks to a recent deal brokered by Trump. The financial toll is mounting: Ford reported $800 million in tariff-related costs in just the second quarter of 2025, while General Motors said the import taxes cost it $1.1 billion over the same period. Those kinds of expenses, industry leaders warn, make it harder to reinvest in new domestic factories—a goal Trump has repeatedly championed.
“We expect tariffs to be a net headwind of about $2 billion this year, and we’ll continue to monitor the developments closely and engage with policymakers to ensure U.S. autoworkers and customers are not disadvantaged by policy change,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said during a recent earnings call, according to the AP.
The pain isn’t limited to the industry giants. Smaller suppliers are feeling the squeeze, too. Detroit Axle, a family-run auto parts distributor, has been among the most outspoken about the impact of tariffs. The company initially warned it might have to shutter a warehouse and lay off more than 100 workers. That crisis was narrowly averted, at least for now, but the uncertainty remains. “Right now it’s a market of who is able to survive, it’s not a matter of who can thrive,” said Mike Musheinesh, owner of Detroit Axle, in comments reported by the AP.
The state’s voters, too, are divided. According to AP VoteCast, Trump’s 2024 Michigan victory was propelled by voters’ negative views of the economy—two-thirds described conditions as poor or “not so good.” About 70% of those with a negative economic outlook backed Trump, while the state was essentially split on whether tariffs were a positive. Notably, Trump garnered 76% of the vote among those who viewed tariffs favorably.
Despite warnings from industry leaders, their lobbying has produced little more than a temporary, month-long pause in the tariffs—hardly enough to blunt the financial blow. The heads of General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis have all cautioned that the tariffs will cut company profits and erode their global competitiveness. The reprieve, brief as it was, did little to ease the pressure.
For Whitmer, the stakes are high. Michigan’s economy is deeply entwined with the fortunes of its auto industry, and the political symbolism of the sector looms large in a state that often decides presidential elections. Professor Grossman summed up the challenge: “Everyone’s aware that Michigan is a critical swing state and the auto industry has outsized influence, not just directly, but symbolically.”
As the dust settles from the Oval Office meeting, Michigan’s manufacturing sector remains at a crossroads. With tariffs biting and no clear relief in sight, the question now is whether the policies hailed as economic salvation will deliver for the workers and communities that depend on the auto industry—or whether, as Whitmer warned, the cost will be too great to bear.