WASHINGTON, D.C. — GM’s plant in Lordstown, Ohio, once employed 10,000 people. Today it sits idle.

President Donald Trump said new tariffs on automobile imports could push companies to move production back to American plants, such as in Lordstown.

Trump imposed a new 25% tariff on all vehicles shipped to the United States. The tariffs will take effect for assembled vehicles on April 3 and for parts on May 3.

In Ohio, some Republican and Democrat lawmakers were in rare agreement that free trade has cost Midwest jobs.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, a former car salesman and the unofficial car czar of the Senate, lauded the tariffs as a way to bring jobs back to Ohio.

“We’re going to see a lot of investment come into the U.S. pretty quickly,” Moreno said. “We’re going to make sure we have energy policies, that we have regulatory policies, tax policies and workforce policies that make that landing very easy. We’ve got to reindustrialize this country. We’ve got to rebuild our industrial base.”

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who recently launched a think tank to study workers’ issues, was also cautiously optimistic about tariffs, though he said they needed to be done strategically.

“I went to the International Trade Commission maybe three dozen times, maybe more, to argue for tariffs, mostly against China, but always countries that were cheating. Sometimes Mexico, sometimes Turkey,” Brown said. “That's my position. The tariffs need to be done right with a clear, consistent strategy. That's how we should move forward on this.”

Though tariffs may eventually create more Midwest jobs, they will likely first drive up car prices by thousands of dollars per vehicle.

Moreno said legislation he is introducing would soften the blow by making interest on auto loans for U.S.-made cars tax deductible. He recently toured the Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland steel plant, where CEO Lourenco Goncalves offered a $1,000 bonus to employees who buy cars made with the company’s steel.

“Because what we want is cars made here in America. They're sold here, and we want it made with U.S. steel,” Moreno said after the tour.

“American made” can be a tricky label, however. Cars assembled in Ohio often rely on imported parts, and parts made in Ohio rely on imported material. For example, the Jeep Wrangler is made only in Jeep’s Toledo plant. Yet only 72% of the Wrangler’s parts come from the U.S. or Canada. Under the new order, the other 28% would face tariffs.