President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs are impacting one of the companies he seeks to aid, American electric car marque Tesla. In a recent letter to the Trump administration, the EV automaker warned that retaliatory tariffs from other countries could harm its US operations.

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs could hurt ‘one of the great American companies,’ Tesla, with retaliation

Tesla sent a warning to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office about its use of tariffs with other countries. In the warning letter, the electric vehicle automaker reminded the administration that aggressive tariffs could “inadvertently harm U.S. companies.”

The letter, while unsigned, was on the company’s letterhead. What’s more, the letter suggested that the administration take the global nature of parts sourcing and supply lines into account. “Certain parts and components are difficult or impossible to source within the United States,” the letter read.

Elon Musk’s automaker goes on to say “Past US special tariff actions have thus increased costs to Tesla for vehicles manufactured in the United States, and increased costs for those same vehicles when exported from the United States, resulting in less competitive international marketplace for US manufacturers.”

The automaker says the tariffs will impact production of its vehicles, even though its models feature some of the highest ratios of North American parts. For instance, the NHTSA says the Model 3 Long Range features 75% North American parts. That ties the Model 3 with the Honda Ridgeline AWD TrailSport exclusively. 

And Tesla isn’t the only one. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Volkswagen, all members of the Autos Drive America trade group, issued similar warnings. The vehicle manufacturing titans suggested that “broad-based” tariffs would disrupt production at the brands’ US factories, per Reuters.

Factories like Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, home of the RAV4 Hybrid and nearly 10,000 employees. Or Tesla’s Giga Texas location, a 2,500-acre site with almost 23,000 workers. 

However, Tesla is the only automaker helmed by Elon Musk, a close ally of Donald Trump. Musk’s dramatic government cost-cutting initiatives as the head of the DOGE have earned him widespread criticism from some and praise from others. Still, the warning letter suggests that Trump’s tariff actions could harm the EV brand’s US production efforts.

The letter hit the USTR desk mere days after Trump reportedly cut a check for a new Tesla EV after Elon Musk sold him one on the White House lawn. During that same interaction, Trump spoke highly of the company and spoke ill of Musk’s naysayers. The president also claimed he would brand vandalism and destructive protests targeting the brand’s interests as “domestic terrorism,” a crime that could conceivably carry a death penalty.