Former President Donald Trump competed with Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday for the attention of voters in the swing state of Michigan, blaming the Democrat for torpedoing Detroit’s “great potential.”
Mr. Trump said that Ms. Harris and the Democrats have embraced policies that hurt Detroit’s auto and manufacturing industries and decimated the job market for blue-collar workers across the state.
“Globalist politicians like crooked Joe Biden, ’Lyin’ Kamala Harris sold you out and let other countries loot, pillage and plunder our wealth, our jobs, and our dreams,” Mr. Trump said in the Motor City. “By the end of my term, the entire world will be talking about the Michigan miracle and the stunning rebirth of Detroit.”
“Detroit has such great potential, but Kamala and the Democrats have been wreaking havoc on this place,” he said. “We are going to make Detroit great again.”
At campaign stops in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Oakland County, just outside Detroit, Ms. Harris painted a different picture in the battleground state where polls show the race is deadlocked.
Ms. Harris said Mr. Trump has been “no friend of labor” and a “union buster his entire career” and that his administration was “one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs in American history.”
“He encouraged automakers to move their plants out of Michigan so they could pay their workers less,” she said, and she promised to “create good-paying jobs, including jobs that do not require a college degree.”
Democrats have noted that Mr Trump failed to deliver on a similar campaign promise in 2016 to bring back manufacturing jobs and stop auto plants from closing in Michigan. Instead, the nation lost manufacturing jobs and six car plants closed.
Mr. Trump hit back at Ms. Harris at his Detroit rally, which stopped for roughly 20 minutes after the microphone stopped working and where he was joined briefly on stage by boxing legend Tommy “The Hit Man” Hearns, who started his professional career in Detroit.
“Kamala does not even pretend to have a plan to save Detroit because she knows her agenda will reduce your future to rubble,” Mr. Trump said. “Her plan will drive every company — even small businesses — out of our country or out of business.”
Mr. Trump said he would pursue pro-worker policies, including slapping tariffs on automobile imports from China, Mexico and other countries.
He has promised to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% from 21% for companies that relocate their operations to the United States and hire American workers.
Economists warn Mr. Trump’s proposed tariff will spark a trade war, increase inflation and increase the cost of consumer goods.
Mr. Trump also made stops in Auburn Hills and Hamtramck, where he met with Amer Ghalib, the mayor of the only city in the United States with an all-Muslim government, who endorsed his presidential bid last month.
Mr. Trump is looking to tap into the frustration Muslim-American voters in Michigan have with the way the Biden-Harris administration has handled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military action in Gaza.
Michigan is home to 240,000 Muslims. Arabs are the largest ethnic group among Muslims in Michigan.
Mr. Ghalib backed Mr. Trump because he felt the White House was blindly backing Mr. Netanyahu and because the Republicans said he would end the conflict.
Mr. Trump has urged Israel to end the conflict as soon as possible and criticized Ms. Harris for not doing more to support the Jewish nation.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.