In an unsigned letter, Tesla warns Trump admin about tariffs hurting the company

• Tesla sent an unsigned letter to the Trump administration’s U.S. trade representative, warning of the impact of retaliatory tariffs. The company said tariffs could impact delicate supply chains and harm its competitiveness.
• The company sent the letter the same day President Donald Trump and CEO Elon Musk held a Tesla event at the White House.
• Tesla previously took issue with Trump’s tariff policies during his first term in the Oval Office and even sued the administration.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is one of President Donald Trump’s most public allies. But Musk’s clean energy and car company just wrote an unsigned letter to the administration warning about its exposure to retaliatory tariffs. 

In that letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Tesla said it is crucial that the White House’s efforts to address trade imbalances “do not inadvertently harm U.S. companies.”

President Trump made trade and tariffs central to his first two months in office. But his trade moves have so far triggered retaliatory tariffs from some of the nation’s biggest trading partners, including the European Union, China and Canada.

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What does the Tesla letter say?

The Tesla letter, dated March 11, was sent on the same day that Trump and Musk held an event showing off the company’s vehicles at the White House. 

“Past U.S. special tariff actions have thus (1) increased costs to Tesla for vehicles manufactured in the United States, and (2) increased costs for those same vehicles when exported from the United States, resulting in less competitive international marketplace for U.S. manufacturers,” the company wrote in the letter, which was not signed by a specific representative from the company.

The company urged the trade representative to find ways to avoid this in future rounds of tariffs. Tesla also asked the USTR to consider how trade actions affect delicate supply chains, specifically for EV batteries.

“Even with aggressive localization of the supply chain, certain parts and components are difficult or impossible to source within the United States,” the letter read.

Professional and financial connections between Trump and Musk

Musk spent roughly $290 million supporting Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Since Inauguration Day, the world’s wealthiest person has been the face of the Department of Government Efficiency.

President Trump tasked the group with “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Tesla’s stock has fallen more than 30% since the start of 2025. Like the overall stock market, it has given up all of its post-Election Day gains.

“It should be the opposite,” Trump said of Tesla’s falling stock price at the White House event. “People should be going wild. And they love the product, but because he’s finding all sorts of terrible things that have taken place against our country, they want to penalize him in an economic sense. And I just think that’s very unfair. So I just wanted to make a statement. I’m going to buy one.”

What has Tesla said about Trump’s tariffs before?

Tesla sued the first Trump administration in 2020 to get two sets of tariffs voided. The company also wanted the government to refund Tesla’s tariff costs plus interest. In 2018, the company complained that China’s tit-for-tat tariffs crushed its competitiveness.

In the 2025 letter, the company wrote, “Tesla recognizes and supports the importance of fair trade,” but stated that “U.S. exporters are inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to U.S. trade actions.”

Despite his company’s concerns, Musk publicly praised the president’s policies on Tuesday, March 11, and talked about expanding production.

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“I want to say, as a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double vehicle output in the United States within the next two years. Double,” he said.

The Trump administration is planning to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. A trade group representing all of the major automakers in the U.S. except Tesla says those tariffs could run up car prices by as much as 25%.