As Donald Trump pushes to dismantle electric vehicle (EV) incentives and roll back California’s EV mandate, the struggle over what powers personal transportation has become both an economic and cultural war. American automakers are pulling back from earlier commitments to electrification, betting that the end of California’s trendsetting mandate will slow the transition throughout the country and relieve them of regulatory pressure.

Trump is promising that the repeal of the California mandate will reinvigorate the American auto industry, particularly when paired with his tariff program. The tariff program, after all, is a cornerstone of MAGA efforts to bring manufacturing back to the country after decades of globalization-friendly policies that prioritized the free flow of goods and services across borders and offshoring jobs while the United States deindustrialized.

In Canada, automakers are taking a similar line. Last spring, CEOs sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney demanding the new government repeal Canada’s EV mandate. “If the mandate is not urgently repealed,” they warned, “it will inflict serious damage on automakers, the dealership network, and the hundreds of thousands of Canadians employed in the sector.” The Canadian auto industry is already under pressure — from Trump’s proposed steel and aluminum tariffs, now set at 50 percent, to persistent uncertainty in a deeply integrated North American supply chain. Ottawa’s EV mandate could soon become another bargaining chip in cross-border negotiations, like defense spending, border security, and the now-defunct digital services tax.