Former President Donald Trump vowed to save the U.S. auto industry from President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate in his speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC).
During his speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, President Trump vowed to “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one, save the U.S. auto industry from being completely wiped out, and save American customers thousands of dollars per car.”
President Trump said China is considering building manufacturing plants in Mexico to produce EVs to sell in the U.S. market without tariffs. President Trump said Sean Fain, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), who supported Biden in the election, should be fired as a result.
The United Auto Workers should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen. The leadership of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately and all autoworkers, union and non-union, should vote for Donald Trump. Because we will bring auto manufacturing back, and we will bring it back fast. [Emphasis added]
President Trump said he would threaten to impose tariffs on automakers that sell cars in the U.S. market but close U.S. factories only to outsource auto work overseas.
“[China is] “We’re going to build some of the biggest factories in the world… We’re going to bring them back. We’re OK with that happening. Those factories will be in the United States of America, and our people will be working there,” Trump said. “And if they don’t agree with us, we’re going to put a tariff on every car, about 100 to 200 percent, so they won’t be able to sell in the United States.”
“For too long, we have been taken advantage of by other countries who are supposed to be allies,” Trump continued, “and we lose our jobs and our income, and they get everything, and they destroy our businesses, and they destroy our people. I stopped this four years ago, and I will stop it again… We will not allow other countries to come in and take our jobs and plunder our country.”
Biden issued an executive order in March to begin phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles and require that the majority of new cars sold in the U.S. market be electric or hybrid by 2032.
An EV mandate could lead to the loss of millions of American auto jobs, as EVs require far less labor to produce than gasoline-powered vehicles. Similarly, the materials needed to make EV batteries are primarily sourced from China.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
