Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) says she’s hearing rumors that President Trump is preparing to let Chinese cars be sold in the US as part of a broader deal with China.
She raised the claim Wednesday, tying it to Trump’s upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, which she said is coming “in just a few weeks.” There are many reasons to doubt these rumors.
“We hear rumors that Trump is planning to allow Chinese cars to be sold in the U.S., as part of a larger deal he’s putting together,” Slotkin wrote on X. She called it “a strategic mistake” that would “irrevocably impact” the 1.2 million Michigan jobs tied to the auto industry, along with US manufacturing capacity more broadly.
Slotkin didn’t cite a source for the rumor, and the White House hasn’t announced any plan to roll back auto trade barriers with China.
Slotkin is using it to push her Chinese car ban
The senator paired the warning with a pitch for her own legislation. Slotkin and Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) are behind a bipartisan bill to ban Chinese vehicles, software, and hardware from the US market, the Connected Vehicle Security Act. It cleared the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously in July, and she’s pushing the full Senate to take it up.
“[Moreno] and I have a bipartisan bill to ban Chinese cars from American markets and from coming over our border bridges and tunnels,” she wrote, a nod to Chinese-brand vehicles assembled in Canada and Mexico.
The bill has heavy backing. We covered last week how the auto industry’s own lobby group and the UAW leaned on Congress to pass it, pitching Chinese EVs as a national security threat rather than a competitive one.
Chinese EVs are already locked out
Chinese EVs already can’t compete in the US, and it’s because of a Democratic policy. In 2024, the Biden administration quadrupled the tariff on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
The Trump administration has kept those tariffs and shown no interest in dropping them. Trump has repeatedly called the 100% rate one of the few things Biden got right. Not exactly an olive branch to Beijing.
Electrek’s Take
The 100% tariff that keeps Chinese EVs out of the US was put in place by Biden and the Democrats, not Trump. And Trump has given no signal he wants to open the market to China. If anything, he’s leaned the other way.
So a “rumor” with no source, dropped the same week Slotkin is pushing her ban bill, reads a lot like politics. There’s an open, competitive Senate race in Michigan in 2026, and there’s real value for Democrats in being seen as the party shielding auto workers from China while casting Trump as the guy ready to sell them out in a deal with Xi. That’s smart positioning in a state where the auto industry is the whole ballgame.
The people who actually lose here are American consumers. Chinese EVs are insane right now: cheap, fast-improving, and years ahead on price. BYD would still sell the cheapest EV in the US even with the 100% tariff bolted on top. Both parties have decided Americans don’t get to buy one. The only fight in Washington is over which side gets credit for the wall.
If Trump does cut a deal with Xi that cracks the door open, it would be a massive reversal, but I simply don’t see that happening right now.
If you’re buying an EV, powering it with home solar can cut your fueling costs to nearly zero, whatever brand ends up winning the price war. With electricity rates up almost 10% last year and expected to keep climbing, going solar is one of the best ways to protect yourself against rising costs. And with lease and PPA options, you can do it with zero upfront cost and start saving immediately. If you want to find the best deal, check out EnergySage. It’s a free service with hundreds of pre-vetted installers competing for your business, so you save 20 to 30% compared to going it alone. No sales calls until you pick an installer. Get your free quotes here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
