President Trump is heading to the battleground state of Michigan on Thursday to promote the benefits for the U.S. auto industry of his new trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
Mr. Trump will visit a manufacturing plant of Dana Incorporated, an Ohio-based auto supplier with several facilities in Michigan. The factory is located in Macomb County, which Mr. Trump won by 12 percentage points in 2016 after President Barack Obama won there in the previous two elections.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is scheduled to give part of the Democratic rebuttal to Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
The president’s speech in Warren, Michigan, comes a day after he signed a trade deal with Canada and Mexico to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement. Macomb County’s largest employers are General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Ford.
During a signing ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, Mr. Trump called the trade deal “a massive win for American manufacturers and autoworkers.”
“Under NAFTA, companies were given huge incentives to produce cars in foreign countries and ship them to America tax-free,” the president said. “We lost our jobs, we closed our factories, and other countries built our cars. But we’ve changed that.”
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He said the new trade deal “closes these terrible loopholes and includes strong provisions to ensure that new cars are fashioned by American hands — that’s a fancy word of saying ’built’ — and manufactured with American labor.”
He said Fiat Chrysler is investing $4.5 billion and creating 6,500 new jobs in Michigan, and opening the first new Detroit plant in more than 30 years.
“Ford is putting in $1.5 billion and creating 3,000 new jobs, while GM is investing $2.2 billion and creating 2,200 new jobs in Michigan to build vehicles of the future,” the president said.
Mr. Trump said the agreement also will boost U.S. steel manufacturing.
“And international automakers are pouring $25 billion into the United States, creating 50,000 new American jobs at a minimum,” he said. “They are all investing in a future where we buy, hire, and drive American cars again. It’s a very important part of the deal.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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