(Reuters) - Violence against Tesla dealerships will be labeled domestic terrorism and perpetrators will "go through hell," U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday in a show of support for the electric carmaker's chief, his ally Elon Musk.
Shares of the automaker closed nearly 4% higher on Tuesday, rebounding from the biggest one-day fall in four-and-a half years the previous day, after the president appeared with Musk at the White House to select a new Tesla for his staff to use.
Activists have lately staged so-called Tesla Takedown protests to voice displeasure over Musk's role in sweeping cuts to the federal workforce at the behest of Trump and cancellation of contracts that fund humanitarian programs around the world. Musk, the world's richest person, is spearheading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
"They're harming a great American company," Trump said at the White House, referring to the demonstrators, alongside Musk who was wearing a black "Make America Great Again" baseball cap. Nearby, a number of Tesla (TSLA.O) vehicles were lined up on the driveway between the mansion and the south lawn.
"Let me tell you, you do it to Tesla, and you do it to any company, we're going to catch you, and ... you're going to go through hell."
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said "ongoing and heinous acts of violence against Tesla by radical Leftist activists are nothing short of domestic terror."
About 350 demonstrators protested outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, last week, while nine people were arrested during a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla dealership earlier in March.
There have also been media reports of vandalism on Tesla vehicles and showrooms that are under investigation.
A group that said it was an organizer of the Tesla Takedown protests responded in a statement on social media platform Bluesky that it was peaceful and opposed violence.
"Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism. They are trying to intimidate us. We will not let them succeed," the group said, calling for people to join the protests.
Trump could direct the U.S. Justice Department to charge Tesla dealership vandals under terrorism statutes, though it is unclear if those charges would hold up in court, according to legal experts.
[1/5]U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media, next to Tesla CEO Elon Musk with his son X Æ A-12, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Purchase Licensing Rights
Defendants would likely argue that vandalizing a car dealership does not meet the federal government's definition of terrorism: violence aimed at intimidating or coercing a government or civilian population to advance political or social objectives.
DOUBLE PRODUCTION
Trump's decision to buy a Tesla electric vehicle - he chose a Model S - was a significant show of support for Musk, who has come under criticism for his work in Washington. Model S pricing starts at about $80,000.
Trump, in the driver's seat of the shiny red car, said he is not allowed to drive anymore but would keep the vehicle at the White House for his staff. He said he did not want a discount from Musk.
Trump in January took aim at electric vehicles, revoking a 2021 executive order signed by his predecessor Joe Biden that sought to ensure half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 were electric.
Tesla's market capitalization has more than halved since hitting an all-time high of $1.5 trillion on December 17, erasing most of the gains the stock made after Musk-backed Trump won the U.S. election in November.
The stock's decline since December stems from falling vehicle sales and profit, protests against Musk's political activity and investor worries that politics was distracting the billionaire from tending to his cash cow.
But at the White House event with Trump, Musk said he would double production in the next two years.
"As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration and an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double vehicle output in the United States within the next two years," he said.
Musk said in January that Tesla was working hard to increase annual volumes this year, after posting its first drop in annual deliveries in 2024. He did not reiterate an earlier promise of 20%-30% growth in vehicle sales this year.
Musk told reporters on Tuesday he would stay in Washington as long as he was useful, but said he would remain Tesla's CEO.
U.S. President Donald Trump's increased tariffs on steel and aluminum imports took effect on Wednesday as prior exemptions, duty free quotas and product exclusions expired, as his campaign to reorder global trade norms in favor of the U.S. stepped up.
Trump's action to bulk up protections for American steel and aluminum producers restores effective global tariffs of 25% on all imports of the metals and extends the duties to hundreds of downstream products made from the metals, from nuts and bolts to bulldozer blades and soda cans.
The runup to the tariff deadline came with some drama on Tuesday as Trump threatened Canada with doubling the duty to 50% on its steel and aluminum exports to the U.S.
But Trump backed off those plans after Ontario Premier Doug Ford agreed to suspend his province's decision to impose a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the states of Minnesota, Michigan and New York until earlier U.S. tariffs were removed.
Ford said he would fly to Washington on Thursday with Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc for talks with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other Trump officials to discuss revising the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.
The incident whip-sawed U.S. financial markets already jittery over Trump's broad tariff offensive, but left unchanged Trump's original plans to strengthen the Section 232 national security tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed in 2018 during his first term.
A White House spokesperson described the U.S. pressure on Canada as a "win" for the American people.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency cut off imports qualifying for duty-free entry under quota arrangements well before the midnight deadline, saying in a bulletin to shippers that quota paperwork needed to be processed by 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday at U.S. ports of entry or the full tariffs would be charged.
The move was welcomed by U.S. steel producers as restoring Trump's original 2018 metals tariffs that had been weakened by numerous country exclusions and quotas and thousands of product-specific exclusions.
"By closing loopholes in the tariff that have been exploited for years, President Trump will again supercharge a steel industry that stands ready to rebuild America," Steel Manufacturers Association President Philip Bell said in a statement.
"The revised tariff will ensure that steelmakers in America can continue to create new high-paying jobs and make greater investments knowing that they will not be undercut by unfair trade practices," Bell added.
The countries most affected by the tariffs are Canada, the biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, which all have enjoyed some level of exemptions or quotas.
The escalation of the U.S.-Canada trade war occurred as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepared to hand over power this week to his successor Mark Carney, who won the leadership race of the ruling Liberals last weekend.
On Monday, Carney said he could not speak with Trump until he was sworn in as prime minister. Trump again on social media said he wanted Canada "to become our cherished Fifty First State."
Canadian energy minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters that Canada could impose non-tariff measures such as restricting oil exports to the U.S. or levying export duties on minerals, if U.S. tariffs persist.
Canada ships about 4 million barrels of crude to the U.S. per day via pipeline, mainly to Midwest refineries. Canadian tariffs on American ethanol are also an option, he added.
Most U.S.-Canada trade remains duty free under the USMCA trade deal that Trump signed in 2020, but he continues to complain about Canada's high tariff rates for dairy products.
Ottawa last week won a month's reprieve for USMCA-compliant exports from Trump's general 25% tariffs for Canada threatened over fentanyl trafficking.
But in early April, Canada also faces Trump's reciprocal tariffs aimed at raising U.S. tariffs to match other countries' rates and counteract non-tariff barriers.
Canada, with ample hydropower resources that has made primary aluminum production more cost effective than in the U.S., has built a commanding position in the U.S. aluminum market, even as U.S. smelters once revived by Trump's tariffs have been idled.
China remains the number two supplier of aluminum and goods made from aluminum, but already faces high tariffs to counteract alleged dumping and subsidies, as well as a new 20% tariff that Trump has imposed over the past month over fentanyl trafficking.
Trump's hyper-focus on tariffs since taking office in January has rattled investor, consumer and business confidence in ways that economists increasingly worry could cause a recession.
A small business survey on Tuesday showed sentiment weakening for a third straight month, fully eroding a confidence boost following Trump's November 5 election victory, and a survey of households by the New York Federal Reserve on Monday showed consumers growing more pessimistic about their finances, inflation and the job market.
U.S. job openings increased in January, but demand for labor is likely to soften in the months ahead amid concerns that uncertainty over import tariffs and aggressive government spending cuts could cause a sharp slowdown in economic activity.
For now, the labor market is holding steady, with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, from the Labor Department on Tuesday showing layoffs declining for a fourth straight month to the lowest level since last June.
There were 1.13 job openings for every unemployed person, up from 1.09 in December. Hiring, however, remained tepid consistent with caution among businesses. President Donald Trump's whiplash trade policy, marked by on-again and off-again tariffs against Canada and Mexico, has shaken business and consumer confidence.
Investors have dumped stocks, wiping out all the gains notched in the aftermath of Trump's November 5 election victory, as the risks of a recession have increased from the trade tensions.
"This report tells us that the labor market was healthy from the perspective of continued expansion prior to the policy regime shift that began to unfold with the new administration," said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economic advisor at Brean Capital.
"Unfortunately, the report tells us nothing about how companies will respond to the threat of tariffs and rising uncertainty, and this could take several months to unfold."
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, were up 232,000 to 7.740 million by the last day of January, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Data for December was revised lower to show 7.508 million vacancies instead of the previously reported 7.600 million.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.63 million unfilled positions. That reading is down 728,000 over the year. Annual revisions showed fewer open jobs from January last year through December than had been estimated.
The annual average job openings level decreased by 1.5 million to 7.8 million in 2024.
The increase in vacancies in January was led by retail trade, with 143,000 additional openings. There were 122,000 more unfilled positions in the financial activities sector and an additional 58,000 vacancies in the healthcare and social assistance industry.
But job openings declined by 122,000 in the professional and business services sector. Unfilled jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry declined by 46,000. Federal government job openings decreased by 3,000, likely reflecting a hiring freeze by the Trump administration
The job openings rate rose to 4.6% from 4.5% in December.
POLICY DRAG
A “Help Wanted” sign hangs in restaurant window in Medford, Massachusetts, U.S., January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Trump, who has doubled duties on Chinese goods to 20% and raised levies on steel and aluminum imports as well as threatened reciprocal tariffs, on Sunday declined to comment when asked whether the economy could experience a downturn. Trump on Tuesday doubled his planned tariff on all steel and aluminum products from Canada to 50%.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has fired thousands of employees in an unprecedented campaign to shrink the federal government and slash spending. Economists have warned that the mass layoffs and spending cuts, which have also impacted federal contractors, would spill over to the private sector.
Those concerns were evident in the National Federation of Independent Business survey, with the Small Business Optimism Index dropping 2.1 points to 100.7 in February.
"Even Republican-leaning small business owners are rattled by the tariff and spending cut plans of the new administration," said Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
U.S. stocks were trading mostly lower. The dollar eased against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields rose.
The stable labor market should allow the Federal Reserve to keep its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged in the 4.25%-4.50% range next week. Financial markets expect the U.S. central bank to resume cutting rates in June because of the deteriorating economic outlook, after pausing in January.
The policy rate has been reduced by 100 basis points since September when the Fed started its easing cycle. The central bank hiked the policy rate by 5.25 percentage points in 2022 and 2023 to tame inflation.
While job growth was solid in February, there were plenty of red flags for the labor market. A broader measure of unemployment surged to near a 3-1/2-year high as the ranks of part-time workers swelled. The share of workers holding multiple jobs was the highest since the Great Recession.
Layoffs dropped 34,000 to a seven-month low of 1.635 million in January, the JOLTS report showed. Job cuts fell in the retail, leisure and hospitality as well as the financial activities sector. They slipped by 1,000 in the federal government.
The layoffs rate eased to 1.0%, the lowest level since June, after holding at 1.1% for three straight months.
Opportunities, however, remain scarce as caution reigns among employers. Hires rose 19,000 to 5.393 million, with moderate gains in the manufacturing, construction, professional and business services, and retail trade industries. But hiring dropped by 67,000 at restaurants and bars. Federal government hiring was unchanged. The hires rate was unchanged at 3.4%.
Despite the dimming economic outlook, about 3.266 million people quit their jobs, an increase of 171,000 from December. The resignations occurred across all sectors, but were unchanged in the federal government.
"The February report will likely look very different, federal government openings will plunge, quits will spike, and layoffs could finally begin to rise," said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. "Calm today, but turbulence ahead."
Goldman Sachs has trimmed its 2025 year-end target for the S&P 500 Index (.SPX) to 6,200 from 6,500 in a note dated March 11, citing policy uncertainty largely related to tariffs and concerns about the economic growth outlook.
The benchmark S&P 500 was briefly on track to confirm a correction on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced fresh tariffs on Canada.
U.S. President Donald Trump defended his use of tariffs and said they could multiply as he met on Tuesday with the CEOs of America's biggest companies, many of whom have watched their market value crater over recession and inflation fears.
The Republican president spoke to about 100 CEOs at a regular meeting of the Business Roundtable, which includes the heads of Apple (AAPL.O), JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Walmart (WMT.N). The event followed a private Trump meeting with technology company executives at the White House on Monday.
U.S. stocks on Tuesday extended a selloff that has dragged the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) down 5.3% so far in 2025, with investors rattled over increased tariffs on imports and souring consumer sentiment.
Monday's drop in the S&P 500 was its largest this year and followed an interview over the weekend in which Trump declined to rule out a recession resulting from his trade policies.
He clarified those comments on Tuesday, telling reporters, "I don't see it at all," regarding the possibility of a recession.
Speaking to business leaders and reporters before the roundtable, Trump defiantly maintained his stance, dismissed market volatility and vowed that investors would see gains for putting money to work now.
"The tariffs are going to be throwing off a lot of money for this country," he said to CEOs. "It may go up higher."
The executives in the room sat expressionless as Trump spoke during a brief part of the meeting that was open to the press. There was scattered chuckling when Trump said there were some people in the room he did not like.
Later, in a part of the meeting that was closed to reporters, Trump vowed to speed up approvals in environmental agencies and cut tax rates to 15% for companies making products in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the remarks.
Trump said markets may have been too high as of a few weeks ago, and described Chinese President Xi Jinping as not thrilled about the new tariffs, the person said.
Trump's economic policies so far have centered on a blitz of tariff announcements. Some have taken effect and others have been delayed or are set to kick in later. He said they will correct unbalanced trade and stop the flow of illegal narcotics from abroad.
Trump started Tuesday by ramping up a burgeoning trade war with Canada, vowing to double tariffs set to take effect within hours on all imported steel and aluminum products from America's northern neighbor to 50%. The White House later said the tariff would remain at 25% after Canadian officials agreed to talks.
Markets worry that tariffs could raise prices for businesses, boost inflation and undermine consumer confidence in a blow to economic growth. It has also raised investor speculation that Trump's ambition will not be bound by the preferences of big business.
The White House has dismissed this thinking, which is shared by most economists, who view trade wars as a lose-lose proposition for the countries involved.
Trump aides say the tariff threats will force companies to invest more in the United States.
VOLATILE MARKETS
"Markets are going to go up and they're going to go down, but you know what? We have to rebuild our country," Trump told reporters before he met the business leaders.
For much of his political career, Trump has talked up the importance of the stock market. During his first 2017-2021 term in office he regularly pointed to rallying stock prices as proof of his success and in both his 2020 and 2024 campaigns warned that markets could tumble if he lost.
Trump had already imposed an additional 20% tariff on Chinese goods entering the United States, and 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, although he suspended most of the duties on U.S. neighbors until April 2, when he plans to unveil a global regime of reciprocal tariffs on all trading partners.
Until recently, investors had been optimistic that Trump's policies would stimulate growth, for instance through lower taxes. They also hoped he could ease inflationary pressures, for instance by loosening regulation on fossil fuel production.
But tax cuts need congressional approval and energy producers are unlikely to dramatically scale up production, which could cut their profit margins. Meanwhile, some economists see plans to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants increasing price pressures in the labor market. Cutting the federal workforce could raise unemployment.
"If we all are becoming a little more nationalistic ... it's going to have elevated inflation," said BlackRock (BLK.N) CEO Larry Fink, a Business Roundtable member, at an industry conference on Monday.
Last week, the Business Roundtable warned that if they are long-lasting, the tariffs "run the risk of creating serious economic impact."
President Donald Trump reversed course on Tuesday afternoon on a pledge to double tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada to 50%, just hours after announcing the higher tariffs, in rapid-fire moves that scrambled financial markets. The switch came after a Canadian official also backed off his own plans for a 25% surcharge on electricity.
Trump's latest salvo, which whipsawed financial markets and rekindled fears of inflation, followed Ontario Premier Doug Ford's announcement that he would place on the electricity Canada's most populous province supplies to more than 1 million U.S. homes unless Trump dropped all of his tariff threats against Canada's exports into the U.S.
Faced with Trump's 50% tariff threat, Ford agreed to suspend the surcharge and meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington on Thursday.
The White House then announced that only the previously planned 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum products from the United States' northern neighbor and all other countries would take effect on Wednesday - with no exceptions or exemptions.
"President Trump has once again used the leverage of the American economy, which is the best and biggest in the world, to deliver a win for the American people," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. "Pursuant to his previous executive orders, a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum with no exceptions or exemptions will go into effect for Canada and all of our other trading partners at midnight, March 12th.”
The back-and-forth between the U.S. and Canada further unsettled financial markets already battered by Trump's focus on tariffs. After tumbling hard after Trump's initial post on Truth Social, stocks rebounded after Ford said he would suspend the surcharge and Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire.
The S&P 500 index (.SPX) dropped as low as 5,528.41 points, briefly marking a 10% fall from its record closing high of 6,144.15 on February 19, which is commonly known as a market correction. U.S. stocks have fallen hard since reaching a record high about a month after Trump took office on January 20, with nearly $5 trillion of market value erased from U.S. indexes.
Trump triggered the selloff with a morning post on his Truth Social media platform, saying he had instructed Lutnick to put an additional 25% tariff on the metals products from Canada that take effect on Wednesday, on top of the 25% on all imported steel and aluminum products from other countries.
He also criticized Canada for trade protections on dairy and other agricultural products and threatened to "substantially increase" duties on cars coming into the U.S. that are set to take effect on April 2 "if other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada."
The U.S. president shook off the market gyrations, telling reporters that markets would go up and down, but that he had to rebuild the economy.
Trump, heartened by Ontario's move, said the tariff rates could rise further, building pressure on countries to move manufacturing into the United States.
"The higher it goes, the more likely it is they're going to build ... The biggest win is not the tariffs. That's a big win. It's a lot of money. But the biggest win is they move into our country and produce jobs," he said, insisting the tariffs would "be throwing off a lot of money to this country."
The escalation of the trade war occurred as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepared to hand over power this week to his successor Mark Carney, who won the leadership race of the ruling Liberals last weekend. On Monday, Carney said he could not speak with Trump until he was sworn in as prime minister.
[1/4]Coils of rolled steel sit in an industrial yard with transmission towers and smokestacks in the background at dusk in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, January 27, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio Purchase Licensing Rights
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Ford's initial comments were "egregious and insulting" and said Canada would be "very wise not to shut off electricity for the American people." Trump was determined to ensure the U.S. relied on its own domestic electricity, she said.
Another Canadian province, Alberta, gave U.S. officials options to de-escalate the trade dispute, its energy minister told reporters at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.
Trump later met with about 100 chief executives of U.S. firms amid evidence that his trade policies could hurt the U.S. economy, threatening to dash a "soft landing" that until recently appeared as the base case and reignite inflation.
Before the gathering, airlines, department stores and other businesses warned that his fast-shifting trade policies are starting to have a chilling effect, with consumers pulling back on purchases of everything from basic goods to travel.
CONFIDENCE TAKES A HIT
Leavitt sparred with an AP reporter over the tariffs during a regular briefing after he questioned why Trump was now backing tax hikes in the form of tariffs after pushing for tax cuts.
"Ultimately, when we have fair and balanced trade, which the American people have not seen in decades ... revenues will stay here, wages will go up and our country will be made wealthy again," she said. "And I think it's insulting that you are trying to test my knowledge of economics, and the decisions that this president has made. I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press."
Investors are bracing for a further round of tariffs on autos as well as tit-for-tat reciprocal tariffs in early April. Canada and China have retaliated with their own tariffs on U.S. exports, while Mexico stopped short of retaliation after Trump delayed his planned levies on the southern U.S. neighbor.
"This is what a trade war looks like," said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center. "Tit-for-tat escalation which can quickly spiral to both sides' economic detriment."
The metals tariffs will apply to millions of tons of steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and other countries that had been entering the U.S. on a duty-free basis under carve-outs. Trump has vowed that the tariffs will be applied "without exceptions or exemptions" in a move he hopes will aid the struggling U.S. industries.
Trump's promise to double the metals levies on Canada sent some aluminum prices soaring. Price premiums for aluminum on the U.S. physical market climbed to a record high above $990 a metric ton on Tuesday.
Trump's hyper-focus on tariffs since taking office in January has rattled investor, consumer and business confidence in ways that economists increasingly worry could cause a recession. A small business survey on Tuesday showed sentiment weakening for a third straight month, fully eroding a confidence boost following Trump's November 5 election victory, and a survey of households by the New York Federal Reserve on Monday showed consumers growing more pessimistic about their finances, inflation and the job market.