President Trump has promised to put tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada — unless they strike deals with him to cut down on immigration and drug trafficking, or otherwise give the U.S. what Trump considers a “win.” Both countries have now negotiated a one-month reprieve from the tariffs.

Trump has called “tariff” the most beautiful word in the English language, but to many U.S. businesses, these particular tariffs are an ugly prospect.

Canada and Mexico are crucial trade partners. The auto industry, in particular, has been watching anxiously for updates. Carmakers have built a vast, complicated supply chain that spans North America, with parts crossing back and forth across borders throughout the auto manufacturing process.

“I think everybody understands that Mexico, the U.S. and Canada are very integrated,” Irina Im, a senior analyst at RSM Canada, said in December. “It is hard to imagine how this supply chain that has been built out over a long time can be disrupted.”

Tariffs would, of course, sharply raise costs on vehicles imported from Mexico, like the Toyota Tacoma, or Canada, like the Chrysler Pacifica. But it would also raise prices for vehicles that are assembled in the U.S., because many of their parts are sourced from companies in Canada or Mexico. Some parts cross borders multiple times — like, say, a wire that is manufactured in the U.S., sent to Mexico to be bundled into a group of wires, and then back to the U.S. for installation into a bigger piece of a car, like a seat.

This border-hopping supply network was supported by trade agreements such as NAFTA, which Trump reviled, and its replacement USMCA, which Trump signed. And the Detroit 3 — the U.S.-based automakers, who have significant operations in the U.S.’s closest neighbors — would be particularly vulnerable to cost increases.

Analysts at Bernstein Research estimate that 25% tariffs on both countries would be a headwind of up to $110 million per day for the auto industry, hurting the Detroit 3 disproportionately. Analysts at Jefferies, an investment bank, project that it would add about 6%, or $2,700, to the average U.S. vehicle prices for car shoppers.

“We urge all parties to reach a swift resolution in order to provide clarity and stability for the entire U.S. auto industry,” Jennifer Safavian, President and CEO of Autos Drive America, a trade group representing international automakers, said in a statement Saturday. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the group representing U.S. auto manufacturing, noted that “seamless” trade in North America supports a $300 billion auto industry.

MEMA, a trade group representing companies that make auto parts and components, wrote in a memo on January 31 that the tariffs “would have severe consequences” for suppliers, workers and consumers alike.

On Monday, Trump spoke with the leaders of both Mexico and Canada, and announced that neither country would be immediately subject to tariffs as talks continue.

But he also dismissed concerns about the economic impacts if tariffs were imposed, telling reporters on Monday that the U.S. is not reliant on Canada. “We don’t need them to make our cars,” he said.

One significant challenge for automakers — and their surrounding ecosystem of suppliers, dealers and repair shops — is Trump has always said these particular tariffs are meant to motivate policy changes, and are not intended to be permanent. That’s in contrast to some long-term tariffs on China, which are meant to help U.S. companies compete with subsidized Chinese rivals, or to the prospect of widespread, across-the-board tariffs meant to raise revenue for the federal government.

When tariffs are expected to linger, automakers might be willing to make significant investments in order to avoid them, like relocating where a vehicle is made, or building new supplier relationships. But if a tariff is only going to be in place briefly (or never move beyond a threat), that outlay doesn’t make sense.

Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, addressed this conundrum in a call with investors last week. The company is prepared to take “no cost or low-cost” actions to mitigate the blow of tariffs, she said. (She didn’t specify, but one possibility would be to stockpile some parts ahead of time, or use existing supplier relationships to source as much as possible from the U.S. instead of other countries.)

“What we won’t do is spend a large amount of capital without clarity,” she said.

And as of Monday afternoon, clarity was in short supply.

Scott Bessent, who was confirmed as Treasury Secretary last week, has been named acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Bessent replaces Rohit Chopra, who was fired on Saturday.

In an internal email shared with NPR, staff were instructed to immediately cease much of the bureau’s work, including issuing or approving proposed or final rules or guidance, and suspending the effective dates of all final rules that have been issued but have not yet become effective.

Staff were also instructed not to commence or settle enforcement actions, nor to issue any public communications of any type, including research papers. The directive was made “[i]n order to promote consistency with the goals of the Administration,” the email said.

Bessent, a wealthy hedge fund manager, was already expected to be a business-friendly choice to lead the Treasury. Now he will lead the CFPB, the federal consumer watchdog, at least for a time.

“I look forward to working with the CFPB to advance President Trump’s agenda to lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth,” Bessent said in a statement.

CFPB has had several lawsuits underway, including enforcement actions against Capital One, Walmart, and Zelle and its parent banks.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who had a key role in the formation of the agency and who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, criticized Bessent’s order halting the bureau’s work.

“Shutting down CFPB enforcement actions that are on the verge of delivering money into the pockets of working people is at odds with President Trump’s claim that he wants to lower costs for families,” Warren said in a statement.

Chopra had led the bureau since 2021 and frequently took on big banks. Under his leadership, the CFPB issued a number of regulations, including limiting overdraft fees, capping credit card late fees, and banning medical debt from appearing on credit reports.

The Consumer Bankers Association, which represents retail banks, cheered the choice of Bessent and suggested he should rescind certain rules promulgated during the Chopra era.

But consumer advocates decried the tapping of Bessent.

“While [Trump] parades a crowd of corporate lobbyists, billionaire donors, and Wall Street insiders like Scott Bessent to lead our country, we’re looking at the end of basic protections for American consumers,” said Tony Carrk of Accountable.US, a corruption watchdog group.

The CFPB is an independent bureau within the Federal Reserve system. It’s funded outside of the congressional appropriations process, and its funding comes from the Fed. The bureau was created in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

That legislation was passed following the 2008 financial crisis and it was intended to protect consumers from overreach by financial institutions and help prevent another crisis.

The main agency tasked with distributing U.S. foreign aid — USAID — is facing renewed scrutiny by the Trump administration, which has suggested it could drastically overhaul or even shutter the organization.

Here’s what to know about the agency.

What is USAID?

Created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, the U.S. Agency for International Development emerged from an effort to separate military and non-military assistance and revamp how the U.S. distributed foreign aid.

Kennedy argued that the U.S., as the wealthiest country on Earth, had a moral and financial obligation to provide foreign aid. It was also politically advantageous to the U.S. to fund projects in poorer countries, he said, to try to prevent the collapse of “existing political and social structures which would inevitably invite the advance of totalitarianism.”

In 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War, the Senate rejected a foreign aid bill, in part over growing concerns that foreign assistance wasn’t helping U.S. interests abroad. Congress later refocused U.S. foreign aid efforts on projects designed to tackle specific issues, such as agriculture, family planning and education.

Still, in the decades since, some lawmakers and public officials have continued to question USAID’s effectiveness and accountability as an independent agency.

What does it do?

USAID provides humanitarian assistance during global conflicts and other emergencies. It funds efforts to promote public health, improve education and protect human rights. It also works to further U.S. interests abroad.

The country that received the most USAID funding during the 2023 fiscal year was Ukraine during its ongoing war with Russia, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service using the most recent complete data available. The agency has also sent humanitarian aid to Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas, and allocates funds to counter China’s influence in the world.

Other top recipients of USAID assistance in that fiscal year included Ethiopia, Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Yemen.

An archived post on USAID’s website, which vanished in recent days, said the agency responds to an average of 75 humanitarian crises each year, and has recently provided support during ongoing emergencies in Haiti as well as countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Other issues the agency has been working on include food security, climate change and global health. Experts have noted that a key component of USAID’s work is preventing disease outbreaks and epidemics from reaching the U.S.

The recent decision to freeze the agency’s activities is already having ramifications abroad. NPR reported that work has stopped on the reconstruction of 10 flood-damaged police stations in Pakistan and a project that secretly provides education to girls in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan could shut down.

How much does it cost?

In the 2023 fiscal year, USAID managed a roughly $40 billion budget. (That represents less than 1% of the total federal budget of $6.1 trillion the same year.) It provided aid to about 130 countries that year.

Though other U.S. departments and agencies distribute foreign aid, USAID has doled out the bulk of international assistance for more than half a century. It has over 10,000 employees, about two-thirds of whom work abroad.

Projects funded by USAID are typically implemented by U.S. or foreign nongovernmental and international organizations, nonprofit and for-profit contractors, universities or foreign governments.

The White House and Senate proposed a plan during Trump’s first term to overhaul the agency, including giving the State Department control over U.S. humanitarian aid.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he is now the acting director the U.S. Agency for International Development, following the Trump administration’s sudden freeze on federal foreign spending.

Speaking to reporters in El Salvador on Monday, Rubio accused the agency of not cooperating with requests for information on how it spent taxpayer dollars.

Earlier on Monday, Elon Musk announced that his Department of Government Efficiency was in the process of “shutting down USAID.”

USAID employees woke up to an email telling them the headquarters in Washington, D.C., would be closed for the day and that they should work from home.

Some Democratic members of Congress are speaking out against the Trump administration’s efforts to halt most of USAID’s work.

“This is an entity that was created through federal statute, codified through federal statute, and something that cannot be changed, cannot be removed except through actions of Congress,” Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said, as demonstrators gathered outside USAID headquarters.

Founded in 1961, the agency manages billions of dollars in federal humanitarian assistance around the world. But its work was been thrown into upheaval in the last week, as the Trump administration halted nearly all its programs.

While Rubio said he is officially the acting director of USAID, he said he has “delegated that authority to someone, but I stay in touch with him,” without naming the person he is delegating to.

He said there are things that USAID does “that we should continue to do and we will continue to do. But everything they do has to be in alignment with the national interest and the foreign policy of the United States.”

This is a developing story that will likely be updated.

NPR’s Fatma Tanis, Hansi Lo Wang and Shannon Bond contributed reporting.