Autoworkers from Michigan praised President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, saying the import tax on foreign-made cars will bring back idle factories in the critical swing state.
Speaking to an audience in the White House Rose Garden, an autoworker named Brian who is a leader in the United Auto Workers said Trump’s newly enacted 25% tariff will bring back the beleaguered industry.
“I grew up just north of Detroit, Michigan, in Macomb County — known as the home of the Reagan Democrats. My first vote for president was for Ronald Reagan,” Brian said. “I thought that was going to be the best president I ever saw in my lifetime until Donald J. Trump came along.”
“I have watched my entire life, I have watched plant after plant after plant in Detroit and in the metro Detroit area close,” the worker said. “There are now plants sitting idle, there are now plants that are underutilized. And Donald Trump’s policies are going to bring products back into those underutilized plants, there’s going to be new investment, there’s going to be new plants built."
Brian is not the only union member to publicly support the president’s tax on foreign automobiles. Last week, UAW President Shawn Fain hailed the tariffs.
“Tariffs are an attempt to stop the bleeding from the hemorrhaging of jobs in America for the last 33 years,” Fain said in an interview on ABC News' “This Week.” “We're in a crisis mode in this country.”
The UAW website labeled the tariffs “the beginning of the end of NAFTA and the ‘free trade’ disaster,” referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Brian concluded his remarks by saying that the results won’t be seen right away, but eventually the workers in Michigan and elsewhere will benefit from Trump’s policies.
“And the UAW members — and I brought 20 of them with me, they’re sitting right over here — we support Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs 100%. So, Mr. President, we can’t thank you enough. In six months to a year, we’re going to see the benefits. I can’t wait to see what’s happening three-four years down the road. Thank you, Mr. President,” Brian said.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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