Trump in Michigan: EVs will 'spell the death of the U.S. auto industry'

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday told supporters at a rally near Detroit that electric vehicles would “spell the death of the U.S. auto industry” because they cost too much and consumers don’t want them.

Trump said Ford Motor Co. and General Motors are “either stupid or they’re gutless” for going along with government emissions standards that are encouraging the industry to build more EVs.

“They want to allow your gas-powered Suburbans, Silverados and Ford F-150s to die,” he said during a lengthy speech at Drake Enterprises, a small auto supplier in Clinton Township, Mich. “Under a Trump administration, gasoline engines will be allowed.”

The Biden administration has set a target of zero-emission vehicles being half of sales by 2030. Automakers are investing heavily in EV development, though they plan to continue selling gasoline vehicles for many years to come, and there is no plan to outlaw them in the U.S.

Trump said companies such as Drake, which makes machined parts for gasoline engines and transmissions, soon would be out of business if the industry continues to shift toward EVs, which he said “you can drive for 15 minutes before you have to get a charge.”

Although Trump spoke as if he was addressing UAW members who are on strike against the Detroit 3, Drake employees are nonunion, and it wasn’t clear how much of those in the room were affiliated with the UAW.

In the crowd outside the event was Mary Klein, who said her husband retired from GM and that she came to show her support for Trump.

Klein said she is concerned that the transition to EVs could result in significant job losses. She said she believes the UAW and the automakers will meet in the middle at the bargaining table.

Of the strike, she said, "I hope that it ends and that everybody can go back to work."

Azure Dorsey, who said she is a UAW member and works at a Mopar facility where workers are on strike against Stellantis in nearby Warren, Mich., said she came to protest Trump's visit.

"If you are not giving us our money, if you are not contributing to the CEOs giving us our money, our benefits, everything that we are asking for, there is no reason for you to be here," Dorsey said. "This is not going to get you a vote.”

Trump traveled to Michigan instead of attending Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate. The visit came a day after President Joe Biden visited workers on strike against GM at UAW President Shawn Fain's invitation.

Dorsey wasn’t impressed by Biden’s brief remarks to UAW members either, saying the president "could have said more than what he said."

The back-to-back visits to Michigan by Biden and Trump, who could be headed toward a 2024 rematch of the 2020 election, have put the national political spotlight on Michigan nearly two weeks into the UAW's historic strike against the Detroit 3.

But Fain said Tuesday there would have been “no point” in meeting with Trump while he was in town, calling the former president unfriendly to labor and noting that he chose to speak at a nonunion shop.

"The ultimate show of how much he cares about our workers was in 2019, when he was the president of the United States," Fain said on CNN. "Where was he then? Our workers at GM were on strike. ... For two months, they were out there on the picket lines. I didn't see him hold a rally, I didn't see him stand up at the picket line, and I sure as hell didn't hear him comment about it. He was missing in action."

Drake Enterprises makes machined parts for gasoline engines and transmissions in Clinton Township about 30 miles north of Detroit. Drake's roughly 125 employees are not represented by a union, a co-owner of the company told Automotive News affiliate Crain's Detroit Business.

"I find a pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a nonunion business," Fain said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN.

"President Trump will be in Michigan talking with union workers and ensuring American jobs are protected," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told CNBC in an emailed statement. "He has always been on the side of American workers and will do everything in his power to be their voice as Crooked Joe Biden is on the side of our foreign adversaries."

Fain stopped short of endorsing Biden but said Trump's lack of support for union workers "speaks for itself" over the years. In 2016, the union endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over Trump but said it believed nearly 30 percent of members voted for the Republican.

"I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for or what the working class stands for," Fain said. "He serves the billionaire class, and that's what's wrong with this country."

On Tuesday, Biden, who has called himself the most pro-union president in history, told striking GM workers that they deserved to share in the automakers' strong performance. Fain had invited Biden to visit.

"You deserve what you've earned, and you've earned a hell of a lot more than what you're getting paid now," Biden said.

Trump criticized Biden in a Tuesday post on his social media site Truth Social, writing that the president's "draconian and indefensible Electric Vehicle mandate will annihilate the U.S. auto industry and cost countless thousands of autoworkers their jobs."

"The only thing Biden could say today that would help the striking autoworkers is to announce the immediate termination of his ridiculous mandate," Trump wrote.

The auto industry's shift to EVs has raised concerns among workers that fewer people will be needed to build electric vehicles compared with internal combustion engines. Fain has said the union is seeking "a just transition" from gasoline engines to electric powertrains.

Drake Enterprises was founded in 1952 and is primarily a Tier 2 and Tier 3 supplier, though co-owner Heather Dombrowski said it also supplies some parts directly to manufacturers. Customers include the Detroit 3, Eaton, GKN Automotive, Mercedes, Volvo, Freightliner, Peterbilt, Kenworth and Nexteer Automotive.

Dombrowski said Drake Enterprises was selected for Trump's visit because of its entrepreneurial spirit and its exposure to the gasoline engine business. She said the company does not have any business related to EVs.

"Politics aside, this is a huge opportunity for us," Dombrowski said. "We're hoping that this will open doors to new customers and expand product lines with current customers."

Nearly 19,000 UAW workers are currently on strike at three assembly plants in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio and 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers across the U.S. Fain plans to say Friday morning whether workers at additional plants will join the strike, which began Sept. 15.

Paige Hodder, Michael Martinez and Kurt Nagl contributed to this report.