DETROIT – Donald Trump made a pitch for votes from key swing state autoworkers during his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination, using false claims to call on them to fire their union president.
On Thursday night in Milwaukee, Trump said the United Auto Workers union should be ashamed for allowing Chinese automakers to start building large factories just across the border in Mexico, from which they will ship cars to the U.S. without any taxes.
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At present, though, industry experts say they know of no such plants under construction, and there’s only one small Chinese auto assembly factory operating in Mexico. It's run by a company called JAC that builds inexpensive vehicles from kits for sale in that country.
“The leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately and every single auto worker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump,” the former president said.
Jeff Schuster, vice president of automotive research for analytics firm Global Data who tracks auto production, said he knows of no Chinese auto assembly plants under construction in Mexico and said Trump's claims were "clearly exaggerated.”
Although Global Data expects Chinese automakers such as BYD and Chery to set up plants in Mexico in the future, it hasn't happened yet, Schuster said.
Chinese companies, though, have long expressed desires to enter the lucrative U.S. market. During his speech, Trump welcomed them, saying Chinese auto factories would be built in the U.S., or he would double or triple tariffs on each car, making them unsellable in America.
President Joe Biden earlier this year slapped tariffs on Chinese imported goods, including electric vehicles.
The UAW and its president, Shawn Fain, fought back after Trump's speech, with the union calling Trump a “scab” and saying on the social media site X that he represents billionaires, not workers. “Scab” is a derogatory term for workers who cross union picket lines and work during a strike.
Fain weighed in Friday with a statement, saying Trump attacked the union in the name of protecting autoworkers. But Fain alleged that Trump did nothing as president in 2019 when General Motors closed a small-car factory in Lordstown, Ohio. Fain also said Trump did nothing when autoworkers went on strike against GM during his term, Fain said.
“He wants to pad the pockets of the ludicrously wealthy auto executives. He wants to cut the corporate tax rates of his golfing buddies," Fain said. "He wants autoworkers to shut up and take scraps, not stand up and fight for more.”
The UAW endorsed Biden's reelection bid in January, just a few months after the Democratic president joined striking General Motors workers on the picket lines near Detroit. The union won big raises last fall after limited strikes at all three Detroit automakers.
Trump and Biden both are vying for an endorsement from the 1.3 million-member Teamsters union.
Realizing the importance of autoworkers in swing state Michigan, Trump and new running mate JD Vance plan to visit Grand Rapids for a rally on Saturday. It will mark Trump's fourth campaign visit to the state since mid-March, when he secured enough GOP delegates to be the party’s nominee.
The Grand Rapids rally will be his first campaign event since he accepted the Republican Party's official nomination at the just-concluded Republican National Convention. Trump gave a speech in the city in early April.
During his acceptance speech, Trump also said he would end what he called the Biden administration's “electric vehicle mandate” on the first day of his second term, diverting money set aside for tax credits to spur EV sales to infrastructure projects.
Such a move would save the U.S. auto industry from “complete obliteration, which is happening right now,” he said.
There is no requirement for automakers to sell electric vehicles under the Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas emissions standards. But to meet the standards, auto companies almost certainly will have to sell some EVs, which don't emit pollution from the tailpipe.
Even under the most optimistic scenario in the EPA regulation, electric vehicles would make up 56% of total U.S. new vehicle sales in 2032. The rest would be combustion engine or hybrid gas-electric vehicles.
But given slowing EV sales, that projection looks pretty rosy. The EV share of total U.S. new vehicle sales dropped to 7.1% in the first half of this year. It was 7.6% for all of last year.
EV sales are growing, though. From January through June, automakers sold 597,958 electric vehicles, up about 6.8% from the same period a year ago, according to Motorintelligence.com.
The EPA does expect most gasoline vehicles to be gone by 2055, 31 years from now.
The auto industry at present is far from obliteration. Since Biden took office in January 2021, employment making cars and parts has grown 13.8% to just over 1 million people, according to the Labor Department. Detroit automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have had a string of strong annual profits. Combined, they posted $35.5 billion in net income last year.
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Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report from Mexico City.