During the campaign, coal mine operators offered up miners as props for Donald Trump. Now auto companies are doing the same, giving workers paid time to attend a Trump speech that promises to make American cars dirtier, less efficient, and less competitive.
And, for all those Trump surrogates who were desperate to find evidence of a conspiracy, these supporters were literally bused in.
Many of the autoworkers on site told WWJ’s Jeff Gilbert they were given time off with pay to attend the event, some of them brought on buses to the American Center for Mobility — the site of the old Willow Run bomber plant, west of Detroit.
The speech, which was a relatively toned down prompter-driven affair rather than a full-on Trump rant, centered around the idea that Trump was ending an Obama executive order that pushed forward fuel efficiency standards. As with most regulations, Republicans (including those in the Trump regime) have maintained that higher fuel standards cost jobs. But the truth is there is no evidence that destroying these standards would increase jobs. Instead, less efficient cars would be less attractive overseas, as well as burning more fuel and being more expensive to operate.
Trump’s misguided move to appease the ever-myopic U.S. auto industry would undo efficiency gains that will provide consumers $98 billion in total net benefits, primarily from reduced fuel use. Individual car buyers would lose “a net savings of $1,650” (even after accounting for the higher vehicle cost) as the EPA concluded in its final January “Determination on the Appropriateness” of the standards.
What ending the standards would do is allow the manufacturers to coast, reducing research and development spending (along with R & D jobs).
Trump also compared his regime to that of Andrew Jackson and repeated a Jackson quote about tariffs. (The part he didn’t talk about: How Trump also reminds a lot of people of Jackson’s most famous policies.)
There was also no mention of Trump’s evidence-free charges that President Obama wiretapped his phones or a single word about Trumpcare. Which isn’t a great sign for the Republican health care bill.
Trump did rail against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal opposed by both Trump and Hillary Clinton, and also talked about tariffs against U.S. autos in overseas markets. Trump made his usual comments about how America lets others send in vehicles, but failed to note either that the TPP would have ended tariffs against American vehicles overseas, or that the U.S. already uses tariffs to keep out foreign-made trucks.
Trump also failed to note that the tariffs he’s proposing could greatly harm the industry, including jobs in the U.S., but he didn’t hesitate to take credit for stopping the construction of a factory in Mexico or creating jobs in the U.S. when both had nothing to do with him or his policies.
Ford said declining sales of small cars, not Trump, influenced the Mexico plant decision, and the company will still make the Focus in Mexico at a different plant. But Ford CEO Mark Fields noted that Trump's promise to lower corporate taxes and ease regulations would make it more attractive to do business in the U.S. Fields also said he's not worried about the possibility of tariffs