Trump Wants Tariffs to Bring Back U.S. Jobs. They Might Speed Up AI Automation Instead

Announcing his tariffs in the White House Rose Garden last week, President Trump said the move would help reopen shuttered car factories in Michigan and bring various other jobs back to the U.S.

“The president wants to increase manufacturing jobs here in the United States of America,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added on Tuesday. “He wants them to come back home.”

But rather than enticing companies to create new jobs in the U.S., economists say, the new tariffs—bolstered by…