Trump blitzes Michigan, delivering economic message and threatening steep tariffs

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a two-stop swing through Michigan on Friday, touting an economic message to the 2024 battleground state that he will slash corporate income taxes and bolster the domestic auto industry through an aggressive series of tariffs on foreign cars.

At a brief town hall meeting at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., Trump answered a series of questions from attendees who identified themselves as autoworkers, saying he plans to impose steep tariffs on any attempts to import autos into the U.S., targeting Chinese competition but also those from a trade ally, Mexico.

"They have to pay a price for that," Trump said at the town hall, which lasted for about a half hour and attracted an audience of 12,000, according to a campaign spokesperson. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., moderated the event.

The Warren visit was preceded by a stop in west Michigan, where Trump - the Republican nominee for president who faces Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 general election - spoke to supporters at a manufacturing facility in a Grand Rapids suburb.

In those remarks in Walker, Trump also focused on plans to boost manufacturing jobs, saying he intends to slash the federal corporate tax rate from 21% down to 15%, but only for companies that make their products in the U.S. At that event, he said he would also move to place tariffs of 100% to 200% on cars manufactured in Mexico to be imported into the U.S.

Such a plan, however, could run afoul of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, negotiated by Trump and touted as a prime achievement of his administration before he left office after his first term. It allows Mexican-made autos to be imported into the U.S. without any tariffs as long as they meet certain rules for where the car was assembled and where its components and materials originated.

Many automakers currently have plants in Mexico, taking advantage of lower labor costs and trade provisions negotiated during Trump’s presidency through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

More: In Michigan Trump calls for slashing corporate taxes, hiking tariffs on foreign products

More: Watch replay: Former President Donald Trump holds town hall in Warren

In Warren, Trump also indicated that he would move ahead with his plans for raising tariffs and lowering taxes with or without the help of Congress. "If they won't do it, I have the authorization and the power to do it myself," he said.

While an administration does have certain powers to raise tariffs on items, especially if it is considered an issue of national security, income tax rates are set by law. Trump's plan for tying tax rates to the site of production also leaves out the very real question of where materials and components for that production come from if they are not readily available inside the U.S.

But Trump repeatedly referred back to tariffs, calling it "a beautiful word if used properly," even though tariffs are costs typically passed onto the consumers, resulting in higher prices.

Trump has been turning more to the town hall format. Last week, he held one in Flint with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Prior to Trump's visit Friday, Harris issued a statement saying Trump "makes empty promise after empty promise to American workers but never delivers" and noted that during his time in office, the U.S. lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, though much of that happened due to the shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Michigan, the number of auto industry jobs fell during Trump's tenure even before the pandemic. Auto manufacturing jobs have climbed steadily in the state during President Joe Biden's term, though employment for parts suppliers has declined.

Harris, while pushing plans of her own to provide first-term homebuyers and small business startups a tax break, has repeatedly said that Trump's plans will hike costs on consumers.

“American workers deserve a leader who keeps their promises and stands with workers when it matters," she said. "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."

Trump, however, blasted Harris as "incompetent" and vowed to rescind what he and other Republicans call a Biden "mandate" to force the American public to purchase electric vehicles.

No such mandate exists but the Biden administration did enact rules that, if they remain in place, would virtually require more than 60% of all new cars sold by 2032 to be EVs, or automakers could face hefty fines. The policy doesn't specifically say automakers would have to sell EVs, however, if they could come up with other ways to meet the emissions standards.

"They have an electric mandate. Every car is going to be electric, they say," Trump said incorrectly. "We'll terminate that."

Trump also said he would get rid of the standards on his first day in office but any such change would have to run through a lengthy bureaucratic procedure to be enacted.

Macomb Community College was packed with hundreds of Trump supporters on their feet to hear from the former president. Messages from the Trump campaign blared from the jumbotron, urging them to vote early as attendees walked past a table encouraging them to sign up to work the election and request an absentee ballot.

Trump did answer one personal question put to him by an attendee in Warren. Asked what his favorite car was, he recalled how his father, real estate developer Fred Trump, bought Cadillacs.

"All he liked was Cadillac. ... It's a very good car," he said. "My father liked Cadillacs and that's good enough for me."

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump stumps across Michigan with economic message and tariff threats