[ad_1]
Jeff Dean/Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024.
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump warned Saturday that losing the 2024 election would be a “disaster” for the U.S. auto industry and the country.
The remarks came as President Trump promised to impose “100% tariffs” on cars made outside the United States and insisted that domestic auto manufacturing would only be protected if he was elected. .
“I’m going to impose a 100% tariff on every car that crosses the border. If I’m elected, you won’t be able to sell those cars,” Trump said at a rally in Vandalia, Ohio. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it would be a disaster for the whole thing, but that would be the bare minimum. It would be a bloodbath for the country. That would be the bare minimum.”
The comments came amid a prolonged debate over Mexico’s auto industry, labor unions, the transition to electric vehicles and car factories. President Trump is trying to appeal to auto workers and voters in Rust Belt states by slamming trade, tariffs and EV manufacturing. President Trump told CNBC this month that he would impose a 50% tariff on cars made in Chinese factories in Mexico.
The former president then emphasized to the audience his belief in the urgency of the November election. “If we don’t win this election, I don’t know if we’ll ever have another election in this country.”
Saturday’s rally was held to support Bernie Moreno, a businessman who is considered President Trump’s frontrunner in the state’s Republican Senate primary on Tuesday. It was a free-spirited speech that was caused by the fact that a teleprompter could not be used due to strong winds.
“I can’t read this damn teleprompter,” Trump said. “This sucker is moving. It’s like reading a flag moving in a 35 mph wind.”
President Joe Biden’s campaign noted Trump’s use of the word “bloodshed” and said the former president “wants another January 6th.”
“This is who Donald Trump is,” Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement Saturday night. “It doubles the threat of personal violence.”
The Trump campaign pushed back Saturday night, saying the former president was talking about auto workers. “Mr. Biden’s policies will spell economic disaster for the auto industry and auto workers,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Levitt.
“Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are making deceptive and out-of-context edits that rival Roman Polanski,” Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chan told CNN.
President Trump spent much of his remarks Saturday bashing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, criticizing Biden on immigration and the economy, and making baseless accusations that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. spent repeating. He reiterated his promise to release those charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, whom he called “hostages,” on his first day in office.
As part of baseless claims that countries are emptying prisons and sending criminals to the United States, President Trump on Saturday called people imprisoned for involvement in gang violence and other violent crimes “human beings.” He said he had not seen it.
“If you have a prison full of MS-13 and all kinds of people and you have to take care of them for the next 50 years, right? Young people, they’re going to be in prison for years. If you call them people. I don’t know if I’d call them people in some cases. They’re not people in my opinion, but the radical left says that’s a terrible thing, so I don’t want to say that. That will not be tolerated,” President Trump said.
He went on to characterize illegal immigrants who commit crimes as “animals.”
The former president has made clear he is trying to drive a wedge between immigration and the border campaign, proposing a broad expansion of his first administration’s hard-line immigration policies, including mass detentions and deportations.
He has also repeatedly used dehumanizing language about immigrants, including saying they “contaminate the blood of our country,” echoing language used by Adolf Hitler last year.
[ad_2]
Source link
