Reuters reports that Donald Trump threatened to pursue German carmakers until there their cars are no longer rolling down New York’s Fifth Avenue. He thinks that imported cars pose a threat to national security.

In response, BMW declared that its South Carolina plant will see job cuts and investment cuts. The South Carolina plant is BMW’s largest globally, with 70 percent of its production going to other export markets. Chinese tariffs on U.S. passenger cars, imposed in retaliation for U.S. duties on Chinese goods, have already hiked up the cost of exporting to China, BMW said. Any U.S. tariffs would likely lead to further retaliatory measures from China and the European Union.  And… the top three US auto exports to China are German branded (BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE/GLS).

To add insult to injury: foreign branded car manufacturers are now making more cars In U.S. than U.S. car companies, and BMW is the largest US car exporter.

Higher tariffs on car components imported to the United States would make other production locations outside the country more competitive. “All of these factors would substantially increase the costs of exporting passenger cars to these markets from the United States and deteriorate the market access for BMW in these jurisdictions, potentially leading to strongly reduced export volumes and negative effects on investment and employment in the United States,” BMW said in the letter.