Pressure on Donald Trump grows as tariffs hit US manufacturing deeper

As Mark Carney heads to Washington, there is clear and obvious pressure on the Prime Minister to secure some kind of deal. But pressure is also increasing on the Trump administration.

American farmers are pleading for bailouts, bourbon producers are pushing for tariff relief and automakers are demanding relief for themselves.

Meanwhile, new polling shows that a growing share of the American public believes the economy is on the wrong track.

The Trump administration knows that as the trade war drags on, its costs will become more apparent. Therefore, some experts have suggested that the President reach a compromise now before the situation worsens.

“My hypothesis is that a USMCA cease-fire before the November 2026 midterms would be politically smart,” said Chris Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, referring to the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement.

“This will end the trade war with the two largest US trading partners and stabilize prices and create conditions for business investment.”

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But Sands says he’s not sure Republicans are ready for it. Therefore, the industries most affected by tariffs will have to lobby for more.

At the top of that list is the auto industry, which has been hit by tariffs on parts.

Ford’s quarterly earnings indicate it will pay US$2 billion in tariff-related costs by the first half of this year.

“It’s disappointing because we are the most American auto company, and we export the most, and yet, we have a $2 billion headwind that prevents me from investing even more in the U.S.,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told Yahoo Finance at a conference in Detroit last week.

Shortly after, Reuters reported that a key Trump ally was promising “significant” tariff relief for automakers.

Senator Bernie Moreno said that companies that have “final assembly” in the US will be rewarded.

“For Ford, for Toyota, for Honda, for Tesla, for GM, these are – approximately in that order of the top five domestic content vehicle producers – they will be Be immune from tariffs.”

It’s unclear what the tariff relief will look like and whether it will include exemptions for Canadian auto parts or Canadian steel. CBC News gave this news Partial relief from steel duty This is the modest expectation of the Canadian delegation.

Meanwhile, the cost of bailouts for the sectors hardest hit by the trade war is rising rapidly.

American soybean farmers have been targeted by China as the trade war drags on. Beijing imposed a 20 percent tariff on soybean exports from the US, effectively locking American farmers out of the lucrative Chinese market.

trump Said on Truth Social last week The tariff revenue will be used to help soybean farmers.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besant later told CNBC That “substantial relief for our farmers, especially soybean farmers” should come as soon as this week.

CNN has said that the cost of such a package would be at least US$10 billion. Politico has reported that this could reach US$50 billion.

This type of government spending attracts a large number of lobbyists. A Bloomberg investigation found that lobbying on tariffs and other trade-related issues reached an all-time high in the first half of 2025. A total expenditure of more than US$900 million has been recorded this year.

And this, in turn, has angered traditional conservative allies. Perhaps most obviously, from the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.

“The farm failure underscores another truth about tariffs, which is that they expand what Mr. Trump used to call ‘the swamp.’ Industries and individual companies affected by tariffs are coming to Washington to lobby for relief. It’s never been so good for the Beltway bandits on K Street,” the board wrote last week, referring to a Washington thoroughfare often associated with lobbyists. Is.

Meanwhile, trade experts say there are more hurdles ahead. The longer the trade war drags on, the higher the true cost of tariffs will appear.

Until now, many businesses have been wary of bearing the increased costs. Companies from Ford to Apple have reported billions of dollars in tariff-related costs, but have so far held back from raising prices for American consumers.

Experts say that this will not work.

“If you think it’s going to be baked into the cost structure of your business, you can’t eat those extra costs for very long, you have to pass them on to your customers,” said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

He says there is a growing consensus that “there will be even better performance in the coming months and into the next year.” In other words, costs will soon rise for consumers purchasing imported products in the US.

So, yes, definitely, there is pressure on Mark Carney to get a deal done. But this confluence of factors, from increased costs to significant bailouts, highlights how trade peace is also in America’s interest.

And while this is exactly the kind of argument that would have won in previous administrations (or even during the first Trump presidency), experts warn, it may not be enough in the current environment.

“There are some signs of increasing pressure on the U.S. side. It’s clear the U.S. economy is softening under the pressure of the administration’s tariffs,” said Clark Packard, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.

“For example, the Trump administration is clearly looking for ways to mitigate the damage caused by retaliatory tariffs targeting U.S. agricultural exports. Similarly, I think the auto industry’s struggles are becoming apparent and the administration is open to accommodating some auto part imports.”

He estimates that these and other points will be the subject of discussion when the two leaders meet on Tuesday.