On Friday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration's tariff policy was, in fact, illegal. And for those who didn't pay attention in Social Studies class, the Court ruling reminded everyone that it's Congress's job to levy taxes, i.e., not the Executive Branch. You know, because the US sort of fought a war and became a country because one lone dude tariff'd the hell out of a bunch of settlers back in the day, and they ratified a Constitution to not let that happen again.
But while the high court's ruling is still being parsed out in legal circles, the President is imposing new tariffs that are supposedly more legal. I say that, as according to the rules of American law, these new global tariffs would only be legal for the next five months before Congress has to act and make them either permanent or not. It is clear, however, that these tariffs hurt American companies, and the American people in particular, as everything got more expensive.
And for those companies already hurting before the tariffs, after was far, far worse. Case in point, Harley-Davidson's CFO stated the company took a $67 million hit from Trump's now-illegal tariffs. Those are taxes the company passed onto the customers, who were already hurting, and which in turn saw the Motor Co's profits and sales freefall to where they are now.
"In 2025, the global tariff environment was more volatile and uncertain than we expected in the beginning of the year," said Jonathan Root, Harley-Davidson's CFO and chief commercial officer during an investor call, adding, "In Q4 of 2025 the cost of new or increased tariffs was $22 million and for the full year of 2025 the cost of new or increased tariffs was $67 million."
Like most manufacturers these days, Harley-Davidson is a global company. It sources parts, raw materials, and more from around the world, including aluminium and steel from Canada, parts from China and Mexico, and even full bikes from overseas plants. I'm not arguing one way or another in terms of domestic manufacturing or how that affects Harley-Davidson, but it's the way of our interconnected world at present, and these tariffs and their enactment hurt a lot of manufacturers. Or rather, it caused the price of importing materials, parts, and bikes to rise, which then required Harley to raise the price on its bikes and parts for you and me.
And Harley already reported that both its revenue and sales had fallen precipitously last year.
On average, Americans saw a $1,000 hit across the board last year due to Trump's tariffs, according to the Tax Foundation's findings. That may be different this year, though, as the tariff fight is ongoing, with the administration announcing a new blanket 15% global tariff. Some countries will see lower tariffs, while others will see more. Add Congress unable to do the damn thing we elected them to do, i.e., govern, and you have the recipe for more volatility. Something that has the potential to further hurt the wounded Harley-Davidson and its new CEO's future plans.
There's currently a lot of talk around companies looking for refunds on tariffs being brandied around. But given how difficult that might be to collect from the federal government, which is in a multi-trillion-dollar debt crisis itself, I doubt Harley will go looking for its money back. Further, the damage is already done, and Harley's new CEO has enough fires to put out as it is. What is likely is that these blanket global tariffs will continue to hurt the American people's wallets, and that in turn will likely hurt Harley's sales.
