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Trump to Visit Ford Factory in Detroit to Push Manufacturing
President Tries to Counter Fears About Job Market, Inflation
DETROIT — PresidentDonald Trumpwill travel to Michigan on Jan. 13 to promote his efforts to boost U.S. manufacturing, trying to counter fears abouta weakening job marketand worries thatstill-rising pricesare taking a toll on Americans' pocketbooks.
The day trip will include a tour of a Ford factory in Dearborn that makes F-150 pickups, the best-selling domestic vehicle in the U.S. The Republican president is also set to address the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino.
November's off-year electionsin Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere showed a shift away from Republicans as public concerns about kitchen table issues persist. In their wake, the White House said Trump would put a greater emphasis on talking directly to the public abouthis economic policiesafter doing relatively few events around the country earlier in his term.
The president has suggested that jitters about affordability are a “hoax” unnecessarily stirred by Democrats. Still, though he's imposedsteep tariffson U.S. trading partners around the world, Trump has reduced some of them when it comes to making cars — including extending import levies on foreign-made auto partsuntil 2030.
Ford announced last month that it wasscrapping plans to make an electric F-150, despite pouring billions of dollars into broader electrification, after the Trump administration slashed targets to have half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030,eliminated EV tax creditsand proposed weakening the emissions andgas mileage rules.
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Ford plant in Dearborn, Mich. (Sean Proctor/Bloomberg)
Trump's Michigan swing follows economy-focused speeches he gave last month in Pennsylvania — where his gripes about immigrants arriving to the U.S. from“filthy” countriesgot more attention than his pledges to fight inflation — and North Carolina, where he insistedhis tariffshave spurred the economy, despite residents notingthe squeeze of higher prices.
Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and2024, after it swung Democratic and backedJoe Bidenin 2020. He marked his first 100 days in office witha rally-style April speechoutside Detroit, where he focused more on past campaign grudges than his administration's economic or policy plans.
During that visit nearly nine months ago, Trump also spoke at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and announced a new fighter jet mission, allaying fears that the base could close. It represented a win for Michigan Democratic Gov.Gretchen Whitmer— and the two evenshared a hug.
This time, Democrats have panned the president's trip, singling out national Republicans'opposition to extending health care subsidiesand recalling a moment in October 2024 when Trump suggested that Democrats' retaining the White House would mean“our whole country will end up being like Detroit."
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"You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said during a campaign stop back then.
Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said that “after spending months claiming that affordability was a ‘hoax’ and creating a health care crisis for Michiganders, Donald Trump is now coming to Detroit — a city he hates — to tout his billionaire-first agenda while working families suffer."
“Michiganders are feeling the effects of Trump’s economy every day,” Hertel said in a statement.
Weissert reported from Washington.
