Op-ed by Summer Lane | Photo: Alamy
On a windy Saturday afternoon in Dayton, Ohio, Trump warned Americans that an economic “bloodbath” would destroy the country’s auto manufacturing industry if he is not elected as the next president in 2024.
The mainstream media dishonestly took Trump’s “bloodbath” comment out of context and failed to inform the public that the president was referring to what would happen to the auto industry if he was not elected in November.
While legacy media outlets sold an egregious misinterpretation, Trump’s full comments were focused on warning Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would put a “100 percent tariff” on cars built in Mexico-based manufacturing plants.
Trump added, “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole [country] — that’s going to be the least of it. … It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
He emphasized, “But they’re not going to sell those cars. They’re building massive factories.”
The mainstream media overlooked the 45th president’s comments about the dire financial situation of the U.S. auto industry, but the truth is clear: without Trump in office in 2025, American auto manufacturing—and the economy as a whole—will be in trouble.
A Shrinking Market and a Green New ‘Scam’
A tremendous amount of American manufacturing has been outsourced to foreign countries over the past few decades, and the U.S. auto industry is certainly no stranger to that fact. According to data from Investment Reports, American automakers are also facing increased competition from foreign companies like Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai.
What’s worse, Joe Biden’s administration has proposed their “Green New Deal,” a climate proposal aimed at reducing carbon emissions. The proposal pitches using renewable energy sources to power the entire country, for example, and forces a nationwide pivot toward electric vehicle manufacturing and high-speed rail, per the NYT.
In reality, the Green New Deal will implement strict regulations on manufacturers, particularly those in the auto industry. With gas-powered cars on the chopping block, millions of auto-based jobs will be at stake, and the market will swing entirely to China, which will hold a unilateral monopoly on providing the materials for those vehicles.
In fact, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce explained it like this:
“This forced EV transition also plays right into China’s hands. China controls the vast majority of critical minerals mining, processing, and manufacturing for electric vehicles. China has 78 percent of the world’s cell manufacturing capacity for EV batteries. To further their grip on EV technology against America, China implemented export controls on graphite, the single largest mineral component of any EV battery, on December 1, 2023. There is currently only one graphite-producing mine in North America.”
Trump has accurately nicknamed Biden’s “climate” policies the “Green New Scam.” He told rallygoers in New Hampshire in December 2023, “They don’t know what they’re doing, but you’re gonna be in the poorhouse to fund his big government Green New Deal, which is a socialist scam.”
The Green New Deal, coupled with Biden’s radical electric vehicle mandates, will deal a final and fatal blow to the American auto industry if allowed to continue.
Saving the auto industry
President Donald Trump has been very clear that he plans to revive and rescue the U.S. auto industry from Joe Biden’s aggressive, foreign-favoring policies.
He explained last year in an Agenda47 policy video, “These extreme left-wing policies are a disaster for families and consumers and are one of the main reasons the average cost of a new car is now over $50,000 dollars—absolutely outrageous. And there’s never been such a price before.”
Trump also predicted that Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana would be sucker-punched the hardest in the wake of Joe Biden’s electric vehicle mandates. Last summer, Trump even put auto workers and the UAW on notice, saying, “I am going to grow your business and they are destroying your business.”
This week, the Biden administration will likely seal the deal on tailpipe emissions regulations, which will take aim at vehicles powered by fossil fuels, per Fox News. This is considered a step toward forcing auto manufacturers to bend the knee to Biden’s electric vehicle push, and it is yet another sign that Trump is right: an economic collapse for autoworkers is on the horizon.
“I saved the American auto industry once, and now, I will save it again,” Trump has pledged, and he’s the only candidate in the 2024 presidential race who can make that promise with integrity.
Cracking down on China
One of the key components of President Trump’s strategy to save American manufacturing jobs for autoworkers is directly tied to his foreign policy posturing toward China. While China is poised to benefit enormously from Joe Biden’s policies, Trump will lower the boom on President Xi’s anticipated economic windfall.
Trump has said that he will keep auto manufacturing within the United States. He will also implement the “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act,” which is what he was referring to during his remarks in Ohio when he spoke about exacting a “100 percent” tariff on Chinese-made cars.
When he first introduced the idea in 2023, Trump explained that he would be willing to impose massive tariffs on imported goods of all kinds.
He said, “If India, China, or any other country hits us with a 100 or 200 percent tariff on American-made goods, we will hit them with the same exact tariff. In other words, 100 percent is 100 percent. If they charge us, we charge them —an eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff, same exact amount. One thing is going to happen: probably they drop the tariff, but if they don’t, that’s okay. We’ll take in plenty of money.”
China will pay through the nose to access the American market, and America, in turn, could make a proverbial financial killing.
Trump alone will save the American auto industry
There is only one man who can save the U.S. auto industry in 2024, and that man is Donald Trump.
His America First policies were great for the country during his first term in the White House, and now that Americans have seen the damage that “Bidenomics” and “Green New Deal” policies have done to the nation, the contrast between Trump’s success and Biden’s economic carnage has never been clearer.
Trump will indeed prevent the financial “bloodbath” of the auto industry, and he’ll do it quickly and efficiently.
