by Eric Lendrum
On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump promised to implement a 200% tariff on all Chinese auto imports from Mexico, with the goal making them “unsellable” in the United States and thus forcing a return to American manufacturing.
As reported by Fox News, the former president made his pledge during a campaign event in Flint, Michigan.
“Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,” said President Trump. “I took in $467 billion from China. Nobody else took in anything.”
“They think they’re going to make their cars [in Mexico] and they’re going to sell them across our line and we’re going to take them and we’re not going to charge them tax,” Trump continued. “We’re going to charge them – I’m telling you right now – I’m putting a 200% tariff on, which means they are unsellable in the United States.”
He emphasized the importance of such a tariff by telling a story about a friend of his in the auto manufacturing industry. When Trump asked his friend to show him a state-of-the-art auto manufacturing plant in the United States, he was told that was not possible, because all the major plants are in Mexico and are run by China, while the U.S. only had smaller plants.
President Trump also acknowledged the most recent assassination attempt against him on Sunday, while he was playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, saying that he was being targeted specifically because of such earth-shattering policy proposals, the likes of which have never been implemented before.
“You wonder why I get shot,” he joked, noting that it puts a target on his back “when I say something like [taxing Chinese auto imports].” He added that “only consequential presidents get shot at.”
But, he emphasized, “you have to do what you have to do.”
President Trump’s latest pledge comes amid recent studies showing that he is reaching historic levels of support among union members for a Republican candidate. On Wednesday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters released an internal poll revealing that a staggering 58% of its members supported Trump for President, while a mere 31% supported Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). This stood in stark contrast to the last internal poll conducted while Joe Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee, which showed Biden with 44% support to Trump’s 36%.
As a result, the Teamsters leadership announced later the same day that, for the first time since 1996, the union would not be endorsing either presidential candidate.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Car Plant” by Joe Ross. CC BY-SA 2.0.
