“We’re living through the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world,” Donald Trump told thousands of Michigan voters on Monday.
During his two Monday rallies in the traditionally blue state of Michigan, Trump detailed the devastation its residents have experienced as a result of Hillary Clinton-backed trade deals.
“Hillary got rich selling your jobs – the same special interests who pushed the jobs out of America are the people who’ve given countless millions to the Clintons. Hillary gets rich making America poor,” Trump told supporters in Warren, Michigan. He added:
Just look at the devastation. Delphi, your area, laid off 3,627 workers right here in Michigan. Most of those jobs went to Mexico.
Benteler automotive laid off 233 Americans and sent those jobs to Mexico.
Steelcase laid off 870 workers; those jobs went to Mexico and Malaysia.
Autodie, once the biggest tool and die maker in the world, laid off 300 workers, getting smaller all the time.
…
Ford laid off 2,155 workers. Those jobs went to various countries, but they’re going to be going to moving to Mexico more and more and more.
Now, Ford is moving all if its small car production. That’s a big deal–to Mexico. And that’s on top of the [$2.5 billion] plant. … A Trump administration will stop the jobs from leaving America and will stop the jobs from leaving Michigan.
During his rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump noted that in addition to those jobs:
GM laid off 314 workers at the Lake Orion Assembly Plant in 2013 because of imports from the South Korean trade deal pushed through by Hillary Clinton. Lear Corporation laid off another 50 people in Rochester Hills and moved their jobs to South Korea. FTE Automotive laid off 166 people in Auburn Hills. Their jobs went to Mexico. Chrysler laid off over 5,300 workers. Those jobs went to Mexico, China, India, and other countries.
Trump explained that the devastation has been a result of Hillary Clinton-supported policies.
Michigan has lost more than one in four manufacturing jobs since Bill Clinton signed NAFTA … a deal strongly supported by crooked Clinton. Before NAFTA went into effect, there were 280,000 auto workers in Michigan. Today, that number is down to less than 160,000 workers and it’s going down fast. Under NAFTA, we eliminated our tariffs on Mexico, but Mexico raised their VAT on us. … So when we send products to Mexico, we pay a 17 percent tax. … Our trade deficit with China grew almost 40 percent during Hillary’s tenure as secretary of state. Her trade deal with South Korea— her baby— killed another 100,000 American jobs.
Trump argued the Hillary Clinton-backed NAFTA was “defective” because it has benefitted Mexico at the expense of American workers—describing it as a “one-way highway right into their pockets”:
It’s a one-way highway. They get the jobs. They get the money. They get the factories. We get the drugs. We get the unemployment. We get the losses. … That’s not too good. America is running an early $800 billion annual trade deficit. … We’re living through the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world.
Trump pledged that a Trump administration would pursue an “America first” trade policy and would stop the bleeding of American jobs to other countries: “At the core of my contract [with the American voter] is my plan to bring back your jobs,” Trump said, adding:
From now on, it’s going to be America first. If Ford or another company announces they want to move their jobs to Mexico or another country, then I will pick up the phone— even though it’s not very presidential for me to be calling the head of a company, but it’s so easy. I will call the executives … [and] tell them that if they want to do that … we will charge a 35 percent tax when they try to ship their products back across what will be a very strong border.
“It used to be the cars made in Flint, and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico. Now the cars are made in Mexico, and you can’t drink the water in Flint. But we’re going to turn it all around,” Trump said. He continued:
Look at the City of Detroit. It used to be the manufacturing hub of the world. Now, nearly half of Detroit residents do not work. It has the second-highest violent crime rate in the country, and the children are trapped in failing government schools. Yet, as the people of Detroit suffer, Hillary wants to spend trillions of dollars on government benefits for illegal immigrants and refugees. We are going to rebuild Detroit, and we are going to rebuild Michigan. We’re going to bring your jobs back.
Trump suggested that it is time for the nation to “close the chapter on the Clintons” and begin focusing on the needs and interests of the American people.
“Hillary Clinton put the office of secretary of state up for sale, and if she ever got the chance, she’d put the oval office up for sale, too,” Trump warned. He added:
When we close the chapter on the Clintons, we open a bright new chapter focused on the American People. My contract with the American voter begins with a plan to restore honesty and accountability to our government. I want the entire corrupt Washington establishment to hear and to heed the words we—not me—we have to say. When we win on November 8, we are going to Washington, D.C., and we are going to drain the swamp.
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