Trump Calls Biden EV Push A ‘Government Assassination’ Of Auto Jobs

Former President Donald Trump ripped President Joe Biden’s push for electric vehicles, calling it a “hit job” on Detroit and the auto industry.

Trump spoke in Clinton Township, Michigan, to a crowd of union workers instead of attending a debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, that aired on Fox Business Network Wednesday. Trump currently leads a 42.2% lead over Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida among Republican primary voters in the Real Clear Politics average of polls from Sept. 14 though September 26, drawing 56.6% of the vote, compared to 14.4% for the Florida governor.

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“Biden’s mandate isn’t a government regulation. It’s a government assassination of your jobs and of your industry. The auto industry is being assassinated, and it makes no difference what you get,” Trump told those attending the speech. “I don’t care what you get in the next two weeks or three weeks or five weeks, they’re gonna be closing up and they’re going to be building those cars in China and other places. It’s a hit job on Michigan and on Detroit.”

The UAW walked off the job at three auto manufacturing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Missouri at midnight Sept. 15, after failing to reach an agreement with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). The union sought a four-day work week and a 36% salary increase over five years, according to Bloomberg.

“But on the electric vehicles, this year to comply with the mandate, a sixty thousand loss. They’re gonna lose sixty thousand dollars for every car produced. That sounds like a great deal, but honestly, for UAW and for auto workers and for everybody and for the country, it’s not sustainable,” Trump said.

Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which spends $370 billion to combat climate change, into law in August 2022. The legislation is loaded with green energy provisions, including a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.

Despite Biden’s push for electric vehicles, the Biden administration blocked efforts to start mining for copper and nickel near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in January, the Wall Street Journal reported. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency made a determination Jan. 31 that would block the mining of 1.4 billion tons of copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and rhenium in Alaska in order to protect salmon.