Mercedes-Benz tried hard to be American. It still got hit by tariffs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. As speculation swirled last month about how auto tariffs would hammer foreign carmakers, Mercedes-Benz Chief Executive Ola Källenius had a ready answer. “We’re also an American company," he said, highlighting the carmaker’s 11,000 U.S.-based workers and that two of his three children were born in the country.

The German luxury-car brand has worked to bolster its American credentials in recent years, including making sport-utility vehicles in Alabama that get shipped around the world. But under President Trump’s new auto tariffs, even those made-in-USA vehicles aren’t American enough. The president last week announced a 25% additional tax on imported cars and car parts, starting on April 3.

On Saturday he told NBC News that he “couldn’t care less" if foreign automakers raise their prices for U.S. consumers in response to new tariffs because “people are going to buy American-made cars." Roughly two-thirds of the 324,500 vehicles Mercedes shipped to dealers in the U.S. last year were imported, and even the popular GLE and GLS SUVs it assembled in Tuscaloosa, Ala., used engines and transmissions from Europe.

New U.S. tariffs could cost the company $1.7 billion this year, according to brokerage Bernstein—14% of expected operating profit. Parts account for roughly a third of the potential impact.

That is before any potential retaliation by U.S. trading partners. Mercedes exports most of the vehicles assembled in Tuscaloosa, exposing it to tit-for-tat tariffs.