WARREN, Mich.—Former President Donald Trump vowed to “reclaim America’s manufacturing power” during a pair of events in the key battleground state of Michigan.
The Republican presidential nominee spoke to thousands of autoworkers at two separate campaign stops on Sept. 27: a rally in Walker, Michigan, near Grand Rapids, followed by a town hall across the state in the Detroit suburb of Warren. At both events, Trump repeated past pledges to implement policies that would boost manufacturing and secure American jobs if he wins reelection Nov. 5.
“I want German car companies to be American car companies. I want them to build their cars in this country, not in Germany,” Trump said at the Walker rally. “I want Asian electronics companies to become Michigan electronics companies.
“I want every manufacturer that has left us to be filled with regret.”
To achieve this, Trump said he would impose tariffs on foreign imports and provide companies producing in the United States with the lowest energy costs, taxes, and regulatory burdens.
Ahead of Trump’s visit, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Trump’s 2020 trade deal with Mexico and Canada, saying it facilitated the transfer of U.S. auto jobs to Mexico.
“American workers deserve a leader who keeps their promises and stands with workers when it matters, and as president, I will bring autoworker jobs back to this country and create an opportunity economy that strengthens manufacturing, unions, and builds prosperity and security for America’s future,” Harris said in a statement on Thursday. “I will always stand with the UAW.”
In late July, UAW President Shawn Fain announced that the influential, 370,000-member union was endorsing Harris. Shortly after, the UAW accused Trump and his ally, X CEO Elon Musk, of an unfair labor practice. The accusation followed a Musk–Trump public “Spaces” conversation, which explored many topics including Musk’s firing of some of his staff at X. The National Labor Relations Board is investigating that action by Musk.
During the presidential debate, Harris highlighted American-made cars as one of the planks to building a “green energy economy.” The Biden administration imposed strict auto emissions standards to accelerate the auto industry’s transition to electric vehicles.
Neither Trump nor Harris earned the endorsement of another large labor union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The union released internal polling on Sept. 23, showing that 58 percent of its members support Trump for president.
As of Sept. 27, Harris was holding a 1.8 percentage-point advantage over Trump in Michigan, according to the RealClearPolitics average of opinion polls. That lead is within the margin of error for most polls, so the race is considered a statistical tie.
On Friday, upwards of 5,000 people filled the Macomb Community College fieldhouse in Warren, Michigan, for the former president’s visit.
About one-third of the attendees at Trump’s campaign event were autoworkers, based on a show of hands at the request of town hall moderator Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
In Macomb County, home to about 886,000 people, Ford and General Motors are among the biggest employers. About 65,000 workers are employed in manufacturing jobs, a county website says.
Five people from the audience each asked Trump a question.
A young man named Nico from Plymouth, Michigan, said he had just been laid off from his job at Detroit Diesel, where he worked as an assembler. He wanted to know how Trump would stop the influx of illegal immigrants who are “hurting American workers.”
Trump told the young man that if he regains the White House, he would resume his wall-building project. During his presidential term, Trump built at least 450 miles of fencing along the U.S.–Mexico border. President Joe Biden halted the border wall construction upon taking office in January 2021.
Stemming the tide of illegal immigration will help prevent them from competing for Americans’ jobs, Trump said.
Harris, during a visit to the border in Arizona on Friday, vowed stricter border policies, including more serious criminal charges for people who repeatedly cross the border illegally and requiring asylum claims to be made only at ports of entry.
Another audience member, Misti Robinette, 50, said she is a single mother of five children who has been building Ford Broncos and Rangers for 25 years.
As she stood onstage near the former president, she told him face-to-face: “If I’m gonna be honest with you, I was not ‘for’ you in the beginning. But my son told me I sounded ignorant, and I needed to educate myself on you.”
And after researching Trump, Robinette said she became one of his voters.
Robinette later told The Epoch Times that she had been told over and over that because she was a union worker, she needed to be a Democrat. She said she was now making up her own mind on who she thinks is best at leading her country.
Trump also addressed the Biden administration’s auto emissions rule, saying it hurts the American auto industry and affects consumers’ choices. He reiterated his past promise to scrap the rule if he’s reelected.
“Not everybody should have an electric car,” Trump said. “You’ve got to have alternatives and choices. That’s what the country is all about.”
An autoworker named Todd from Shelby, Michigan, lamented that 2,000 people are being laid off from his manufacturing plant within the next few weeks. He blames the current administration’s policies.
On a lighter note, he asked Trump to name his favorite American vehicles, which prompted the former president to recall his father Fred.
“My father was a great guy, I learned so much from him, and he loved Cadillac. His biggest luxury in life was to get a brand new, dark blue Cadillac every two years,” Trump said. “My father liked Cadillacs, so that’s good enough for me.”
One must ask themselves; What happened to our economy, how did 12 Million plus illegal immigrants get into our country and why are U.S. taxpayers forced to supporting them, why are little children going through sex changes?
Am I better off now under the Democrat OBiden/Harris administration?
Is our country Better off now under the Democrat OBiden/Harris administration?
OR
Was I better off now under the Republican Donald Trump administration?
Was our country Better off now under the Republican Donald Trump administration?
We could solve all these economic problems by doing the opposite of what we do now, Start rewarding the successful Self-governing and begin punishing those who are too lazy, too corrupt, or just too stupid to govern their own lives. Raise the taxes of the wealth consuming failures, and lower the taxes on the succesful productive who create surpluses that can be shared. Those who come to the American table with just an appetite need to be charged for the meal.,,,,,via work, money, taxes or public service.
AND since many of those jobs were UNION JOBS, why didn’t the UNIONS THEMSELVES FIGHT TO keep them here!?
The dirty little secret secular socialist self-god politicians will NEVER admit to, is that they need a Capitalist working class of producers to feed upon or their whole fake structure of government soon begins to unravel. Without rich successful, or just plain over-productive people living in the image of their creator in creating surpluses for others to share in, they would have no class they could paint as the bad guy and justify the social theft via government taxation. Ridding them from government would be as easy as passing a bill that requires a balanced budget EVERY YEAR, which would limit their ability to steal from the productive to redistribute to the unproductive who live in the image of the great Consumer himself. unable to steal from future generations when they run out of the current generation of useful idiots that continue to vote the citizens into positions of government dependency, and THEY into positions of perpetual California style never ending failing power. Had Newsom been elected at the national level, and given the ability to print federal money to cover their malfeasances in governance, their big lie would have been exposed and revealed years ago in the same failed governance Joe and Kamala have shoved down our throats for the past 4 years. America needs to start manufacturing real products that can be felt, smelled, used to create more,,,not more useless government paper pushing jobs that produce nothing.
As i saw in a Charlie Kirk video when he asked a gal “IF everyone’s just taking ,and taking, because they feel ENTITLED to do so, WHO IS IT THEY ARE TAKING FROM”??