DETROIT — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pitched Michigan business leaders Thursday on a series of steps he hopes can reinvigorate what he says is a “collapsing” U.S. auto industry, while also criticizing Detroit, the city where he was delivering his remarks.
Trump, the former president, said he wants to revisit his own 2020 trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, impose more aggressive tariffs and institute large tax breaks for automakers who build factories and do research and development domestically. He also pledged to make interest on car loans fully tax deductible, which he suggested would help both carmakers as well as consumers dealing with high prices.
“Your car industry is going out of business. It’s going out of business,” Trump told members of the Detroit Economic Club, but said a recent “nightmare” for U.S. automakers could come to an end if he is elected in November.
About 1,000 people were in attendance at Thursday’s meeting of the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino Hotel. In the two-hour speech, Trump labeled Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, as more “developing” than “most places in China,” at one point calling it a “once great city.” At another point, he used Detroit to characterize what will happen to the country if his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, wins the Nov. 5 election.
“It will be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” Trump said. “You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”