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| Detroit News
Township of Washington – In freezing winds and snow dust, President Donald Trump touted his record of Michigan’s economy and vowed to deliver products to automakers and other manufacturers at a rally in one of the counties most crucial in the state.
Trump began his speech by telling residents of Macomb County that he had already shipped factories to a state that was “bleeding” auto jobs in 2016 – a claim unsupported by federal jobs data – and that he would have many more “move in” jobs.
Throughout his hour-long speech, Trump constantly reminded the crowd of the jobs they stand to lose if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is elected, he will “gut” the auto industry.
“We’ve done things nobody has ever done, cut your taxes, cut your regulations, and make sure more products are proudly stamped with those beautiful words, that beautiful phrase, ‘Made in the USA’,” said Trump said.
The Republican president also warned of extreme environmental policies that would not provide the energy needed to power Michigan factories and manufacturers. During the last presidential debate, Biden said he wanted to “make a transition” away from the oil industry.
“China doesn’t. Russia doesn’t. India doesn’t,” Trump said. “We’re going to be so disadvantaged competitively that we might as well fold the bridge.”
Thousands of people attended the event, one of 14 stops – including three in Michigan – that the Trump campaign planned to make over the weekend and Monday before polling day.
As they approached security, people were given hand warmers and masks that they were asked to wear as they passed through security. Most of the participants did not wear masks.
Michigan’s third most populous county, Macomb County, swung to the right in 2016 and helped Trump claim a 10,704 vote victory in Michigan over then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
In 2012, then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, won the county by 4 percentage points. Four years later, Trump won it by 12 percentage points, or about 48,000 votes, in a victory that helped him correct losses in other areas of the state, including neighboring County of Oakland.
Trump’s rally in Washington Township will be followed by a Monday night rally in Traverse City and a Monday night event in Grand Rapids, the same place where he ended his 2016 campaign.
The president cited a Gallup poll in early October which found that 56% of Americans polled said they were better off than four years ago. Trump also said that the average household earned $ 6,500 in income during the first three years of his administration.
It also played up to the 33.1% rise in gross domestic product or third-quarter economic activity announced last week as businesses reopened across the country. Second-quarter GDP fell 32.9% as states, including Michigan, imposed lockdowns and restrictions on businesses in an attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The income demand appears to be based on monthly data ranging from January 2017, when the president was invested, to August 2019, according to Sentier Research. But the payoff was closer to $ 5,000 – $ 60,973 in January 2017 to $ 65,976 in August 2019 – and is based on monthly data that is more volatile than annual data.
Other fact-checkers have said Trump is including gains from tax cuts to meet the president’s household income gain figure.
Although Biden is part of the Obama administration that helped the auto industry bounce back from the Great Recession, the Republican President has said Biden will be bad for the auto industry. He noted that Biden supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and wanted to phase out the oil industry on which the auto industry relies.
“A vote for Biden is a vote to eradicate it completely, I mean you will gut your auto industry,” Trump said.
The former vice president said he wants to create 1 million jobs in the automotive sector by promoting research and development of electric vehicles. During the last presidential debate, Biden said he wanted to “switch” from the oil and gas industry to renewables.
General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. have committed billions of dollars to the research and manufacture of electric vehicles over the next several years as part of its promotion of the development of autonomous vehicles. But electric vehicle sales remain a tiny fraction of annual auto sales.
Former Democratic Governor Jim Blanchard took issue with Trump’s claims, saying the Obama-Biden bailout of Chrysler and General Motors Co. was a success. Blanchard was a member of Chrysler’s board of directors from 2009 to 2012, when the Obama administration rushed her bankruptcy.
“We have expanded Jeep production in Detroit, made major investments here and also increased production in Toledo,” Blanchard said Sunday. “Thousands of jobs. We had big rallies with Obama at the Detroit and Toledo Jeep factories.”
Michigan has added 33,000 auto manufacturing jobs in the last four years of President Barack Obama’s administration, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The state had lost about 2,400 auto parts and manufacturing jobs from January 2017 to February 2020 – before the pandemic hit Michigan, according to the BLS.
Trump and Congress replaced NAFTA in January with the United States-Mexico-Canada deal, which requires automakers to produce cars with 75 percent parts sourced from the United States, Canada, or Mexico to benefit duty-free treatment. The requirement is a 62.5% increase under NAFTA rules.
Trump interrupted his speech several times to notice the wind on his face and the cold. The temperature hovered around 40 degrees, but the wind chill dropped much lower during the rally.
“It’s a crazy place, but we love Michigan,” he said, adding at another point that “I’m not a diva”.
A protester who walked into the press section and held a sign saying Trump was obese was escorted out of the premises at the start of Trump’s speech.
Biden and former President Barack Obama held rallies on Saturday in Flint and Belle Isle in Detroit, where they attacked the president’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and economy.
“Instead of implementing a plan to bring the virus under control, President Trump has resorted to blaming doctors for inflating the number of COVID-19 cases. This must stop,” the Biden campaign said in a statement on Sunday.
“In two days, the Michiganders can get this country back on track. We can bring our country together, implement a plan to bring the pandemic under control and rebuild our economy by creating millions of well-paying union jobs. Go vote, Michigan. “
In 2018, amid ongoing clashes with the press, Trump turned down the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC, to spend time with “Patriotic Americans” in the other township of Washington – Washington.
Trump campaigned in Macomb County ahead of the March 2016 primaries and during the general election campaign, successfully appealing to blue collar workers and “Reagan Democrats.” He campaigned at the Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Sterling Heights on the Sunday before the November 2016 election.
His Sunday rally will be his third in Michigan in less than a week. He campaigned in Lansing on Tuesday and Waterford on Friday, promising voters the country was “turning a corner” on the response to COVID-19.
Editor Craig Mauger contributed.
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