Trump Threatens 300% Tariffs on Companies That Don’t Build Factories in the US

US President Donald Trump has warned that foreign companies that do not build factories in the United States could face tariffs of up to 300%, doubling down on his trade policy just two days after his party lost control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday 5 November 2026, Trump said tariffs were the reason thousands of factories were being built in America — and that removing them would bring construction to an immediate halt.

“If I took tariffs off right now, every one of those plants would immediately stop construction,” he said, adding that companies were building in the US because otherwise they would have to pay tariffs of “50, 100, 150, 250, even 300 percent.”

The warning sets up a direct clash with the Democrats, who won both chambers of Congress on 3 November and have promised to roll back Trump’s tariffs when the new Congress meets in January 2027.

What Trump said

Trump made the remarks while signing a proclamation designating the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as a national monument, a move he said would stop any future president from changing them. Asked by reporters how he planned to use executive orders over the next two years, he turned the conversation to trade.

“We have thousands of plants and factories being built in the United States,” he said. “They’re only building them maybe for two reasons or three reasons, but the 99 percent is if they don’t build them, in order to sell their product into the United States, they’d have to pay a 50, 100, 150, 250, even 300 percent tariffs. And once they start building and once they open up, they pay no tariff.”

He claimed that more than 3,000 factories and production facilities were under construction across the US, and tied the building boom to $22.2 trillion in new investment, which he described as “the highest number ever for any country at any time by maybe five times.”

He also warned that scrapping the tariffs would leave the US importing everything from abroad again. “They would say, thank you, sir, very much. We’re going back. We’ll send you the product from Japan,” he said, naming China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines as the countries American buyers would turn to instead.

Trump promised a wave of action in the coming weeks. “You’re going to see a lot over the next week or two. We have a lot of things cooking,” he told reporters.

Why now: a president under pressure after the midterms

The timing matters. The remarks came just two days after the Republican Party suffered a heavy defeat in the midterm elections on Tuesday 3 November, losing its majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Democrats campaigned heavily on the cost of living, arguing that Trump’s tariffs had pushed up prices for ordinary Americans. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader who is the front-runner to become the next Speaker of the House, pledged in his campaign statement for the post to repeal Trump’s tariffs within the first 100 days.

Trump’s message on Thursday was, in effect, a refusal to back down. Rather than offering a compromise or a change of direction, he presented the tariffs as the engine of a manufacturing boom — and warned that removing them would destroy it.

The new Congress does not convene until January 2027, and Congress returns for its current session on 9 November. That gives the Democrats time to prepare tariff legislation, but Trump still holds the veto, and he still controls the trade powers of the presidency. Trade experts quoted in the reporting say the Democrats will put his tariffs under close scrutiny, but are unlikely to be able to roll back much of the policy on their own.

What would a 300% tariff actually mean?

A tariff is a tax charged on goods when they cross a border. A 300% tariff would mean that a product worth $100 would face $300 in tax when it enters the United States — effectively tripling its price before it even reaches a shop shelf.

In practice, a rate that high is not really a tax at all. It is a wall. Almost no company could afford to sell its goods in the US at three times their normal price, so the choice would be simple: build a factory in America, or give up the American market.

That is exactly the point Trump is making. His argument is that the threat of very high tariffs forces foreign companies to invest in American factories, creating American jobs. Once a factory is built and opens, he said, the company pays no tariff at all.

But there is a catch. Trump did not say which countries or products the 300% rate would apply to, or when it would take effect. He gave no legal basis and no timetable. That leaves businesses guessing — and uncertainty is exactly what companies say they hate most when they are deciding where to invest billions of dollars.

This is not the first 300% threat

The figure of 300% has come up before. At a rally in Ohio on 3 October 2026, Trump said foreign companies selling goods in the US would have about 18 months to build factories in America or face tariffs of 150% to 300%, according to a report from The Motley Fool. Earlier in 2026, he also floated tariffs of up to 300% on imported semiconductor chips, along with higher levies on steel.

The difference this time is the context. In October, Trump was speaking as a president with his party in control of Congress. Now he is speaking as a president facing a Democratic Congress that wants to tear the whole tariff policy down — and he is raising the stakes instead of lowering them.

Can he actually do it?

Trump’s tariff powers have already been tested in the courts, and the results have been mixed.

In February 2026, the US Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) did not authorise the president to impose tariffs. The government had collected $317.8 billion in duties and had to return $144.6 billion to importers after the ruling, according to Treasury Department figures. Net customs duties totalled $173.2 billion in fiscal 2026, down from $194.9 billion the year before.

After that ruling, the administration turned to other laws. It imposed a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, and it has used Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which covers national security, and Section 301 of the Trade Act, which targets unfair trade practices. The Office of the United States Trade Representative says Section 301 tariffs now cover 60 economies.

Any of these laws could, in theory, be used as the basis for tariffs in the 150% to 300% range. But rates that high would almost certainly draw legal challenges in US courts, and could also be contested at the World Trade Organization. Trade lawyers also point out that Section 122 tariffs are limited to 150 days unless Congress extends them — which a Democratic Congress is unlikely to do.

In short, the threat is real, but the path to carrying it out is far from simple.

What the Democrats plan to do

The Democrats have been clear about their intentions, but less clear about the details.

House Democrats say they would undo Trump’s tariffs, but they have not said what would replace the money the tariffs bring in, and they have not addressed the Section 301 tariffs now hitting 60 trading partners. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, estimates that repealing the remaining tariffs would cost the federal government about $85.5 billion a year in lost revenue — about $245 per person.

Several Democratic lawmakers have already introduced bills aimed at the tariff powers Trump has used. Representative Don Beyer of Virginia introduced a measure requiring Congress to vote on presidential tariff actions under Section 232. Representative Linda Sánchez of California, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means trade subcommittee, introduced a bill terminating the executive orders behind the tariffs. Representative Jimmy Panetta of California introduced a bipartisan measure with Republican Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska targeting a Section 122 tariff that expired in July 2026. Representative Brad Schneider of Illinois introduced a bill in August 2026 to repeal Section 338 and refund duties collected under it.

According to reporting on the plans, the Democratic side intends to begin considering a bill to remove some of Trump’s tariffs in the new Congress that convenes in January 2027. But with Trump holding the veto, and with the two parties far apart on trade, a clean repeal looks very difficult.

What it means for Pakistan

For Pakistan, the stakes are direct. The United States is Pakistan’s biggest export market, and textiles and clothing make up about 82% of what Pakistan sells there.

Pakistani goods currently face a 19% US reciprocal tariff, revised down from an originally proposed 29% in August 2025 after the two countries finalised a trade deal. In the 2024–25 financial year, Pakistan exported $5.8 billion worth of goods to the US, out of total bilateral goods trade of $7.6 billion.

The tariff is already hurting. A recent report by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the South Asian Federation of Accountants warns that the 19% tariff has raised the landed cost of Pakistani textiles and clothing by up to 18%, contributing to a decline in export volumes of 20–30%. The report estimates annual revenue losses of up to $0.49 billion under the new tariff structure.

Despite that pressure, Pakistan’s exports to the US have held up so far. In the July–December period, total exports to the US rose from $2,902 million to $2,991 million — growth of about 3% — while textile and clothing exports grew about 4%, from $2,377 million to $2,470 million.

Pakistan has been pushing for a better deal. A delegation led by Commerce Secretary Javed Paul has held talks with the Office of the United States Trade Representative, seeking a cut in the 19% rate to 15–16%. The urgency has grown because India now faces an 18% tariff, while Bangladesh and Vietnam average around 20% — and Washington has granted zero-duty access to a large share of Bangladeshi garment exports made from American cotton. Pakistan, which imported about $1 billion worth of American cotton in 2025, is asking for similar treatment for garments made from US cotton.

Against that background, Trump’s new threat matters in two ways. First, if the US raises tariffs further on countries that do not build factories in America, Pakistani exporters could face even higher costs in their most important market. Second, if the Democrats succeed in rolling back some tariffs in the new Congress, Pakistan’s exporters could get relief — but that outcome is far from certain, and it would take months at best.

For now, Pakistani businesses are watching Washington closely, because a decision taken in the Oval Office can decide whether a factory in Faisalabad or Lahore wins or loses an order.

What happens next

Several things will become clear in the coming weeks:

• Executive action: Trump said he would do “a lot of things” over the next week or two. Watch for new executive orders on trade, and for any formal announcement of new tariff rates.
• Congress returns: Congress is back on 9 November. Expect Democrats to start work on tariff legislation, and Republicans to argue about how to respond to the midterm defeat.
• Legal challenges: Any new tariff in the 150% to 300% range would almost certainly be challenged in court, as the earlier tariffs were.
• Markets and businesses: Companies in China, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines — the countries Trump named — will be weighing whether to speed up factory plans in the US, or wait to see whether the threat turns into policy.
• The new Congress: The real test comes in January 2027, when the Democratic-controlled Congress convenes and begins considering bills to remove some of Trump’s tariffs.

Frequently asked questions

What did Trump actually threaten?

He said foreign companies that do not build factories in the United States could face tariffs of “50, 100, 150, 250, even 300 percent.” He said that once a company builds a factory and it opens, it pays no tariff.

When did he say it?

On Thursday 5 November 2026, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office while signing a proclamation making the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room a national monument.

Why did he say it now?

Two days earlier, on 3 November, Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections, campaigning against the cost of living and promising to repeal his tariffs. Trump’s remarks were a defiant answer: he is keeping the tariffs, not dropping them.

Has he threatened 300% tariffs before?

Yes. At a rally in Ohio on 3 October 2026 he warned of tariffs of 150% to 300% for companies that did not build in the US, and earlier in 2026 he floated tariffs of up to 300% on imported semiconductor chips.

Can the Democrats stop him?

Not easily. They can pass bills to repeal the tariffs, but Trump can veto them, and he still controls the presidency’s trade powers. Legal challenges in the courts are another route, and the Supreme Court has already struck down one set of his tariffs, in February 2026.

What does it mean for Pakistan?

Pakistan’s exports to the US — mostly textiles — face a 19% reciprocal tariff. Higher US tariffs would raise costs for Pakistani exporters in their biggest market. Pakistan is already asking Washington to cut the rate to 15–16%.

Conclusion

Trump’s 300% tariff threat is, for now, words rather than policy. No country has been named, no product has been listed, and no date has been set. But the words matter, because they tell us where the president stands after a bruising election defeat: he is not retreating on trade, he is raising the stakes.

For businesses around the world — and for exporters in Pakistan — the message is blunt. Build in America, or pay a price that could make selling in America impossible. Whether the threat becomes reality will depend on what Trump does in the next two weeks, what the courts say, and what a Democratic Congress does when it takes over in January.

Until then, the uncertainty itself is the story. Companies cannot plan billion-dollar factories on a threat, and they cannot ignore one either.

Sources

• Seoul Economic Daily: “Trump Threatens 300% Tariffs as Cabinet Exodus Talk Spreads” — https://en.sedaily.com/international/2026/11/06/trump-threatens-300-percent-tariffs-as-cabinet-exodus-talk
• Aju Press: “Trump signals no tariff change despite election defeat” — https://m.ajupress.com/view/20261106092359882
• Arirang News: “Trump threatens up to 300% tariffs on firms not building in U.S.” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJVgybEIcmQ
• Full transcript, Trump Oval Office signing, 5 November 2026 — https://tommyxtopher.substack.com/p/trump-oval-office-signing-11-05-2026
• Europe Says / BigGo Finance: “Trump Warns of 300% Tariffs Even After Election Rout, Digs In on Bringing Manufacturing Back to US” — https://www.europesays.com/3355912/
• MediaPA Now: “Democrats would end Trump’s tariffs. They haven’t said how.” — https://mediapanow.com/national-news/democrats-would-end-trumps-tariffs-they-havent-said-how/
• The Evergreen Edit: “Trump Threatens 150% to 300% Tariffs on Companies That Don’t Build U.S” — https://theevergreenedit.money/investing/trump-tariff-threat-150-300-percent-factories
• Independent News Pakistan: “Pakistan’s exports to US post modest growth after April 2025 tariff move, textiles dominate” — https://inp.net.pk/article-detail/inp-wealthpk/pakistans-exports-to-us-post-modest-growth-after-april-2025-tariff-move-textiles-dominate
• Independent News Pakistan: “Economists warn 19% U.S. tariff is hitting Pakistan’s export engine” — https://inp.net.pk/news-detail/pak-china/economists-warn-19-us-tariff-is-hitting-pakistans-export-engine
• The News: “Pakistan seeks reduction in US tariff” — https://www.thenews.pk/print/1400453-pakistan-seeks-reduction-in-us-tariff

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.