Trump takes aim at EV industry during speech to Michigan Republicans

Former President Trump railed against the electric vehicle industry during a speech to Michigan Republicans on Sunday, warning them that the state’s auto industry is at risk under President Biden.

“Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan and his environmental extremism is heartless and disloyal and horrible for the American worker and you’re starting to see it,” Trump said in a keynote address to Oakland County Republicans in Michigan on Sunday.

“Driven by his ridiculous regulations, electric cars will kill more than half of U.S. auto jobs and decimate the suppliers that they decimated already — decimate the suppliers, and it’s going to decimate your jobs and it’s going to decimate more than anybody else, the state of Michigan,” he added. “It’s is going to be decimation. It’s going to be at a level that that people can’t even imagine.”

“The state of Michigan is going to be decimation,” he added. “It’s going to be at a level that that people can’t even imagine.”

Michigan is home to more than 175,000 auto manufacturing jobs in 2021, according to a report from nonprofit research center Mackinac Center for Public Policy. While that number is still higher than other states, it’s also just 37 percent of the jobs Michigan had at its peak.

The Biden administration has pushed to boost electric car sales, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicting that two-thirds of new car sales could be electric by 2032 under a new proposal released by the administration earlier this year.

Trump also touted the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) he made in 2020, saying the deal created “tough new requirements to ensure more cars are made in American factories by American workers.”

“And it’s happening right here in Michigan,” he added. “And this had nothing to do with the Democrats. They’re going to end it. They want every car to be all electric, except you don’t make all electric cars too much. You know who does — China.”

Polls continue to show Trump with a comfortable lead over his 2024 GOP primary opponents. A new NBC News poll showed that the former president expanded his lead over his opponents this month in the wake of his federal indictment, where he was charged with 37 counts of mishandling classified documents and attempting to keep those documents from the government.

President Biden won Michigan in the 2020 election with just more than 50 percent of the vote, flipping a state that Trump carried in 2016.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.