(The Lion) — A confident President Donald Trump Tuesday highlighted his record of turning America around since taking office last January, including economic success, international moves and planned reforms to healthcare and housing.
Speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump said the country has rebounded quickly under his administration as he approaches his first anniversary back in office next week.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Trump said. “After less than 12 months in office, I’m back in Michigan to report to you on the strongest and fastest economic turnaround in our country’s history. It’s really been historic.
“Growth is exploding. Productivity is soaring. Investment is booming. Incomes are rising; inflation is defeated. America is respected again like never before.”
Manufacturing growth
Trump highlighted manufacturing investment in Michigan and across the Midwest, crediting tariffs – including a 25% levy on foreign-built automobiles – for encouraging companies to move production back to the United States.
“Ford has announced it will invest $5 billion across its Michigan and Kentucky plants creating 4,000 new jobs,” he said. “GM is moving production of the Chevy Blazer and Equinox from Mexico right back here to America,” while Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram, “is investing $13 billion to expand its U.S.-based manufacturing by more than 50%.
“Every prediction the critics made about our tariff policy has failed to materialize,” Trump added. “The evidence shows overwhelmingly that the tariffs are not paid by American consumers; they’re paid by foreign nations and middlemen.”
The Republican pointed to easing inflation and declining mortgage rates, which reached a three-year low last week, while again criticizing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates more aggressively.
“Today, if you announce great numbers, they raise interest to try and kill it so you can never really have the kind of rally you should have,” he said. “We’re talking about the head of the Fed. And I want somebody that when the market is doing great, interest rates can go down because our country becomes stronger.”
‘Flawless’ foreign policy
On foreign policy, Trump reiterated support for protesters in Iran while emphasizing precision in U.S. military operations.
“We did al-Baghdadi, flawless. We did Soleimani, flawless. We did the Iran nuclear attack, where we wiped out that nuclear capacity, which would have been very bad – you wouldn’t have peace in the Middle East – flawless,” he said. “We did them all flawless. I want to keep it going that way too.”
The hourlong speech, which Trump said was delivered “off teleprompter about 80% of the time,” included previews of upcoming policy announcements. Trump said he will outline plans to help Americans buy homes and restrict large corporations from purchasing single-family homes when he speaks next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Later this week, Trump said, he will announce “our health care affordability framework that will reduce premiums for millions (and) lower drug prices, delivering price transparency and demand honesty and accountability from insurance companies all over the country.
“When we would have drug prices stay the same, everybody thought it was great,” he added with a hallmark Trumpism: “They’re going to be coming down 1000s of percents.”
He praised Michigan Republicans who attended the event and highlighted former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate in the midterm elections. He also reiterated efforts to combat fraud and crack down on abuse of government programs by noncitizens.
Looking ahead to the midterms, Trump criticized Democrats’ messaging on rising costs.
“In the coming weeks, I will be laying out even more plans to help bring back affordability,” Trump said. “They always go, ‘This is an election about affordability.’ I say, ‘They caused it.’”
Image credit: The White House
