By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-03 22:35:59 | Updated at 2024-10-07 10:27:55
3 days ago
Former President Donald Trump promised Thursday that no state would be allowed to ban gas-powered cars if he is elected in November.
He delivered the pledge during a rally in Saginaw, Michigan, an area that once produced components for Detroit's auto industry but has fallen on hard times with the decline of American manufacturing.
The 78-year-old Republican nominee is seeking to wrest the state back from Democrats and made a series of car-friendly promises to an audience of thousands in a cavernous university sports hall.
'When I am president no state will be permitted to ban gas powered cars—and I guarantee it,' he said to cheers of approval.
He notably steered clear of his latest legal woes, a federal filing that reveals new evidence of what prosecutors said were his 'increasingly desperate' attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.
Former President Donald Trump promised Thursday that no state would be allowed to ban gas-powered cars if he is elected in November
Instead, he set out his economic priorities, including forcing foreign car companies to build models in the U.S. or face punitive tariffs on imports.
Trump has railed against efforts by the Biden administration to speed the transition to electric vehicles with a mix of carrots and sticks. And his arch enemy Gavin Newsom, governor of California, has promised to ban the sale of all gas cars and trucks in his state by 2035 and phase them out entirely by 2045.
But Trump has recently moderated his opposition to electric vehicles in general, saying that the choice should be left up to consumers.
On Thursday, he promised that Michigan's economy would boom when he had the chance to choke off foreign imports.
'This is supposed to be the car capital of the world. I call it the lack of car capital,' he said.
'It will end up being bigger and better and more beautiful than it was at its height.
His claims will likely meet skepticism in Michigan. Analysis by the Detroit News this week revealed that the number of jobs in vehicle and parts manufacturing in Michigan declined during Trump's first term, according to Department of Labor statistics.
And it found that the proportion of U.S. auto production in Michigan fell from 22 percent in 2013 to 14 percent by 2020.
In a speech lasting a little under 90 minutes, Trump also hit all his usual talking point an falsehoods: That he won the 2020 election, inflated crowd sizes, that European nations aren't paying their NATO bills, that there would be no war in Ukraine if he was president.
Trump was speaking in Saginaw, the swingiest of swing counties in swing state Michigan
He spoke for almost 90 minutes in his usual freewheeling style, dispensing bold claims, outright lies and the sort of bombast that his rally crowds love
Supporters crowded into the Ryder Center for Health and Physical Education at Saginaw Valley State University
He slammed his rival Kamala Harris, saying she would be devastating to the economy.
And he promised to take action on rising prices.
'Starting on day one of my new administration we will end inflation, and we will make America affordable again, it's not affordable. They kill you,' he said.
Trump was spending the third of four days in little over a week in what Democrats see as their Mid-West blue wall. After vistiing Wisconsin twice in the past week he is back there again on Sunday for a rally.
On Thursday he was on the opposite side of Lake Michigan, in not just a swing state but the swingiest of swing counties.
Two vendors selling Trump merchandise got into a brawl ahead of the event
In 2016, Trump claimed Saginaw county by 1.1 percentage points over Hillary Clinton on his way to taking Michigan by only 11,000 votes.
It flipped to Joe Biden in 2020 as he went on to win the state back.
'So goes Saginaw county, so goes Michigan,' runs a local expression.
The area was closely linked to the state's auto industry. Parts manufactured here would be assembled into cars in Detroit.
But the industry's decline brought decline to Saginaw.
A day earlier, Trump's running mate Sen. J.D. Vance was in the area, campaigning on the state of the economy and Michigan's auto industry.
