Michigan Union Workers Praise Trump’s Tariffs: ‘Can’t Thank You Enough’

Auto industry union workers in Michigan are praising President Donald Trump’s decision to place tariffs on foreign-made cars, which were announced as part of the president’s “Liberation Day” agenda to place tariffs on imports from dozens of foreign nations.

During the president’s Rose Garden announcement speech on Tuesday, a longtime United Auto Workers (UAW) took the stage to thank the president for taking steps to rectify decades of unbalanced trade agreements that have accelerated off-shoring and cost American jobs. Brian, a longtime UAW leader, praised Trump’s decision to place 25 percent tariffs on all foreign-made vehicles, stating that it will help to revitalize the American auto industry in Michigan.

“I grew up just north of Detroit, Michigan in Macomb County — known as the home of the Reagan Democrats. My first vote for president was for Ronald Reagan,” Brian said. “I thought that was going to be the best president I ever saw in my lifetime until Donald J. Trump came along.”

“I have watched my entire life, I have watched plant after plant after plant in Detroit and in the metro Detroit area close,” the UAW leader continued.

President Trump stated that the tariffs are designed to force foreign companies to either relocate manufacturing efforts to the United States or remove their own hefty tariffs that are already placed on American vehicle imports. “There are now plants sitting idle, there are now plants that are underutilized. And Donald Trump’s policies are going to bring products back into those under-utilized plants, there’s going to be new investment, there’s going to be new plants built,” Brian added.

“And the UAW members — and I brought 20 of them with me, they’re sitting right over here — we support Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs 100 percent. So, Mr. President we can’t thank you enough. In six months to a year, we’re going to see the benefits, I can’t wait to see what’s happening 3-4 years down the road. Thank you, Mr. President.”

UAW has been enthusiastically supportive of Trump’s tariff agenda despite the fact that union President Shawn Fain endorsed, and campaign for, former President Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades. Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions,” Fain said in a statement last week.

In an official statement, the UAW highlighted the devastating effects that “free trade” has had for their industry. “Corporations have been driving a non-stop race to the bottom by killing good blue-collar jobs in America to go exploit some poor worker in another country by paying poverty wages. Tariffs are a powerful tool in the toolbox for undoing the injustice of anti-worker trade deals,” the union wrote in an official statement.

UAW then spoke to criticism of the president’s tariff strategy and fears that it will lead to increased prices for consumers. “There’s been a lot of talk of these tariffs ‘disrupting’ the economy. But if corporate America chooses to price-gouge the American consumer or attack the American worker because they don’t want to pay their fair share, corporate America bears the blame for that decision,” the statement continued.

Speaking from the White House, President Trump criticized decades of U.S. foreign policy and trade agreements, saying, “Our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations.

“Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” Trump added. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”

“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us. So, the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal.”