Former President Donald Trump spoke to autoworkers in Clinton Township, Michigan , Wednesday night, calling on striking union members to...
Former President Donald Trump spoke to autoworkers in Clinton Township, Michigan, Wednesday night, calling on striking union members to back his campaign while slamming President Joe Biden’s economic and environmental policies.
In his speech, Trump focused on Biden’s push for more electric vehicle sales, saying the green energy agenda of the Biden administration is harming the auto industry and the livelihoods of blue-collar workers. He also slammed the president for traveling to Michigan on Tuesday “to pose for photos at the picket line” only after Trump had announced he would speak to striking auto workers.
“The workers of America are getting, to put it very nicely, screwed. … Yesterday Joe Biden came to Michigan to pose for photos at the picket line, but it’s his policies that send Michigan auto workers to the unemployment line,” Trump said. “He only came after I announced that I would be here.”
Trump skipped the second Republican presidential debate to deliver the address to Michigan voters. His speech, which he called his “vision for a revival of economic nationalism and our automobile manufacturing lifeline,” took place at Drake Enterprises Inc., a non-union auto parts manufacturer. During his roughly one-hour-long address, the leading Republican candidate took aim at the Biden administration’s acceptance of policies pushed by leftist environmentalists.
“You can be loyal to American labor or you can be loyal to the environmental lunatics,” Trump said. “But you can’t really be loyal to both. It’s one or the other.”
“The auto industry is being assassinated,” Trump added. “If you want to buy an electric car, that’s absolutely fine. I’m all for it. But we should not be forcing consumers to buy electric vehicles they don’t want to buy.”
Doug King, a 55-year-old auto worker who attended the speech, told The Detroit News that he was happy with Trump’s time in office, saying it benefited the auto industry. He added that consumers, not the government, should control which vehicles are produced and purchased.
“The four years under Trump were the best years that we had in the auto industry,” said King, who works for Stellantis, one of the three auto giants facing strikes from workers.
The former president warned those in the audience that a second Biden term in the White House “means that the future of the auto industry will be made in China.” Trump promised the auto workers that, if elected, he would ensure the auto industry stays in America.
“My pledge to everyone is that a vote for President Trump means the future of the automobile will be made in America,” the former president said. “It will be fueled by American energy, sourced by American suppliers, it will be sculpted from American aluminum and steel, and it will be built by highly skilled American hands and high-wage, American labor.”
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