Ford is staring down the most aggressive wave of Chinese competition the American auto industry has ever seen, and its chief executive is making it clear that friendly access to the White House is not enough. Ford CEO Jim Farley says the administration will always pick up when he calls, but he is now publicly pressing President Donald Trump to move faster and hit harder on China before low cost electric cars swamp the market. In Farley’s view, the survival of union jobs, legacy truck profits, and the next generation of American EVs are all tied to how Washington responds in the next few years.
Farley’s open line to Trump, and why that is not enough
When I look at the way Ford CEO Jim Farley talks about Washington, what jumps out is how comfortable he sounds describing his access to power. He has said that the White House will “always answer the phone,” and that he has the ear of President Donald Trump when he wants to talk about tariffs, regulations, or the future of electric vehicles. That kind of direct line is rare for any CEO, let alone one trying to steer a 120 year old automaker through a once in a century technology shift, and it explains why Farley is willing to mix praise with blunt demands in public.
At the same time, Farley is not pretending that good vibes with the Oval Office solve his biggest problem, which is the speed and scale of Chinese automakers. In his recent comments, he has framed his relationship with President Donald Trump as productive but incomplete, stressing that the administration has more work to do to shield American factories from a flood of subsidized imports. In interviews highlighted by Ford CEO Jim, he has been explicit that access is only useful if it leads to tougher rules that keep the playing field from tilting even further toward Beijing backed rivals.
China’s EV surge and the “car with ten cameras” problem
Farley’s urgency starts with what he is seeing in the global EV market. Chinese brands are rolling out battery powered cars packed with technology, often at prices that undercut American models by thousands of dollars, and he has warned that these companies “pose a lot of threat to labour locally” because of the way they lean on state support. He has pointed to huge subsidies from the Chinese government that are now being exported along with the vehicles themselves, a combination that lets Chinese rivals flood markets with cheap EVs that would be impossible to build profitably in Michigan or Kentucky without similar backing, a concern he has tied directly to Addressing Chinese competition.
In one vivid example, Farley has talked about a “car with ten cameras” coming out of China, a shorthand for how aggressively these manufacturers are loading up their vehicles with sensors and software while still keeping sticker prices low. That kind of product is not just a curiosity at a trade show, it is a direct shot at the heart of Ford’s future business, because it blends advanced driver assistance, connected services, and EV architecture in a way that could reset consumer expectations. When he references that “car with ten cameras,” as he did around the CES 2026 event, he is really warning that if the United States does not respond, Chinese dominance in EV technology and cost could become locked in, a point underscored in coverage of how Jim Farley Praises and its Dominance.
Tariffs, CUSMA, and the fight over the trade rulebook
Farley’s answer to that threat is not subtle, he wants tougher trade rules and he wants them soon. He has stressed that Chinese automakers are not just competing, they are benefiting from “huge subsidies from the government that they’re exporting,” and that the only way to protect North American jobs is to make sure there is “a fair playing field.” That means more relief from tariffs on key inputs like aluminum, which Ford uses heavily in its best selling F Series pickups, and at the same time tighter controls on finished vehicles that arrive from Chinese factories. In his view, the current mix of tariffs and loopholes leaves American manufacturers exposed, a concern he has linked to the need for more targeted relief on materials and stronger barriers against subsidized imports.
That is where the debate over the Canada United States Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA, comes in. President Donald Trump has publicly suggested that the trade deal is irrelevant, but Farley has pushed back, calling the agreement essential to keeping North American production viable and saying that revising the trade agreement is on a “long list” of issues Ford needs to work through with Trump’s administration. For Farley, CUSMA is not some abstract diplomatic document, it is the rulebook that decides whether it still makes sense to build trucks and SUVs in Ontario or Michigan instead of shifting more work to lower cost regions. His insistence on revisiting the pact, even as the president shrugs it off, shows how seriously he takes the threat of Chinese automakers using any gap in the North American trade wall to move vehicles into the market, a point he has tied directly to Revising the existing deal.
Regulation rollbacks, profitable trucks, and the EV pivot
Farley is careful to give Trump credit where he thinks it is due, especially on regulations that affect Ford’s bottom line. He has praised the president’s decision to roll back fuel economy standards and ease some auto tariffs, arguing that those moves have helped Ford build more profitable vehicles right now instead of rushing into unprofitable EV volumes. In his telling, support from the administration has allowed Ford to lean into high margin products like the F Series pickups and large SUVs while it works through the messy early years of electrification, a dynamic that has been described as Support from Trump Administrati policies that boost profitable vehicle production.
At the same time, Farley has been blunt that regulatory relief is not a long term strategy if Chinese EVs keep gaining ground. He has warned that if the United States simply relaxes standards without pairing that with a serious industrial policy, it risks ceding the future of electric vehicles to companies backed by Beijing. That is why he keeps looping back to the need for a tougher stance on Chinese subsidies and a clearer roadmap for how American automakers can transition from today’s profitable gasoline trucks to tomorrow’s battery powered lineups without getting crushed on price. In conversations flagged by reporter Sasha Rogelberg, Farley has framed this as a list of issues “we got to work through,” a phrase that captures both his appreciation for the help he has already received and his impatience for a more aggressive plan.
Trade deal tensions and what Farley wants next
Underneath all of this is a quiet but real tension between Farley and President Donald Trump over how seriously to take formal trade deals. While the president has brushed off CUSMA as something he “doesn’t really care about,” Farley has stressed the importance of the agreement for Ford’s factories and suppliers, especially as Chinese automakers look for any opening to route vehicles into North America. He has made it clear that revisiting the pact is not optional from his perspective, it is part of a broader effort to harden the region’s defenses against a wave of subsidized EVs and to keep the benefits of any new investment flowing to American and Canadian workers, a contrast that has been highlighted in reporting on Differing trade deal visions.
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