Former President Donald Trump chose to forgo the second Republican presidential debate and instead delivered a familiar populist appeal to a crowd of autoworkers in Clinton Township, Michigan.
Despite criticism from the Biden campaign, Trump's remarks focused on condemning President Biden's electric vehicle mandates and promising to eliminate them on his first day in office.
Trump, who currently holds a significant lead over his Republican competitors in the latest Economist/YouGov poll, reiterated his commitment to economic nationalism, a key factor in his 2016 victory. Speaking to autoworkers at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionized automotive parts manufacturer in Macomb County, Trump accused the Biden administration of perpetrating a "government assassination" of the American auto industry.
Referring to President Biden's claim of being the most pro-union President in history, Trump criticized Biden's career as an "act of economic treason and union destruction." He expressed support for striking workers and their goal of fair wages and stability, but emphasized that if union leaders fail to demand the repeal of Biden's electric vehicle mandate, the hourly wage becomes irrelevant.
President Joe Biden, who had addressed striking United Auto Workers members on a picket line the day before, has set a target for 50% of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030. The Biden administration's updated emission limits for cars mean that by 2032, two-thirds of all new cars sold will have to be electric.
Aside from the well-known challenges associated with the adoption of electric vehicles, such as the strain on the electric grid, Yen Chen, principal economist at the Center for Automotive Research, highlighted the potential job losses, particularly in Michigan.
Chen explained that traditional internal combustion engines require major components like engines, transmissions, fuel systems, and exhaust systems, which are not present in electric vehicles. The manufacturing of engines and transmissions requires a significant amount of labor, unlike electric vehicles that rely on more automated construction techniques.
According to Ernst & Young, vehicles with conventional power trains have up to 2,000 components in their power trains, while Tesla's drive train reportedly contains only 17 moving parts. This means that fewer parts and more automated construction techniques in electric vehicles will result in a reduced need for labor. Ford and other industry experts predicted in 2019 that building electric cars would require approximately 30% less labor.
City Journal recently suggested that while the total electric vehicle ecosystem may involve more labor per vehicle, most of the increase would be found in the manufacturing chain. This implies that while jobs may be lost in America, many will likely be created overseas. The Financial Times also indicated that the shift to electric vehicles would result in fewer American auto worker jobs and fewer union jobs in the electric vehicle ecosystem.
During his speech, Trump warned that a wage increase would not make a difference because auto workers would soon be without jobs due to the shift to electric vehicles. He accused Biden of selling out American labor to China and environmental extremists, claiming that Biden's support for electric vehicles would not only harm the auto industry but also have negative consequences for the environment. Trump argued that one cannot be loyal to both American labor and environmental causes, suggesting that Biden was siding with left-wing extremists who would destroy automobile manufacturing and the country itself.
Trump, who had previously threatened to eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles during his presidency, promised the Michigan crowd that he would terminate Biden's electric vehicle mandate on his first day in office. He also pledged to cancel any job-killing regulations that burden American autoworkers and to lift the ban on internal combustion engines.
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