At a campaign rally in Flint, Michigan on Tuesday night, former President Trump spoke about his plans to impose a 200% tariff on all cars imported from Mexico, saying they would “be unsellable” in the United States.
“Tariffs are the greatest invention of all time,” Trump said at a town hall event hosted by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “I've taken $467 billion from China. Nobody else has taken anything.”
Former President Trump attends a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, in Flint, Michigan.
To justify his statement that he would impose a 200% tariff on auto imports from Mexico, Trump cited a friend in the auto manufacturing industry who asked him to show him a state-of-the-art auto manufacturing plant in the U.S. But according to Trump, his friend told him that this was not possible because the U.S. only had small auto manufacturing plants, and the major plants were in Mexico, most of which were run by China.
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“They drove their cars [in Mexico] And they're going to sell it across our borders and we're going to take it and not tax them.” Trump said on Tuesday evening. “We're going to impose a tariff on them. I'm telling you right now, we're going to impose a 200% tariff. That means they can't be sold in the United States.”
A Toyota Hilux hydrogen fuel cell prototype vehicle is displayed at the IAA Transport Fair in Hannover, Germany, on Monday, September 16, 2024.
“You're probably wondering why I'm getting shot,” Trump said after the announcement.
He said, “When I say this [taxing Chinese auto imports]”That puts a target on his back,” he added, “and only presidents who matter get shot.”
But Trump acknowledged that “we have to do what we have to do.”
“We must be courageous, otherwise there will be no country left,” the former president added.
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Earlier this week, Brian Pannebecker, a former autoworker who spent a combined 36 years on manufacturing floors at Ford, Chrysler and Stellantis, spoke to Fox News Digital about why he and other pro-Trump autoworkers support the former president over Kamala Harris. He said the former president's resistance to Democratic efforts to implement an electric vehicle mandate and other environmental regulations in the auto industry was also a factor, as was Trump's replacement of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with stricter trade rules under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump 2024, speaks next to former President Trump during a “Go Vote” rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024.
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“Kamala Harris goes on the record “She's said she wants all vehicles made in the United States to be zero-emissions by 2035. She sponsored legislation to that effect when she was a U.S. senator,” Pannebecker said. “She knows nothing about manufacturing. She knows nothing about economics. She was a liberal district attorney in San Francisco and then became attorney general of California. And we all know what happened in California. They screwed that state.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
