Ford’s F-150 Chokepoint Shows the Limits of the Trade War

Ford Motor Co. has been hit by not one but two butterfly effects.

A fire last month at an aluminum mill in upstate New York, disrupting production of its trucks including the F-150 pickup, will chop the automaker’s expected annual operating profit by $1.5 billion to $2 billion, or roughly a quarter. Meanwhile, the erratic trade war being waged out of the White House construction site will have taken another billion dollars off. This is less than what was anticipated up until another tariff carve out was announced a week or so ago, but still a billion dollars.