The President: Thank you very much.
It is truly great to be back here in Michigan -- great.
(Applause.)
And it's also wonderful to be here with
the leaders, workers, engineers and suppliers of
Ford, and Fiat-Chrysler, and General Motors,
and many others.
We have so many leaders that we just met, all of
the leaders of the major car companies and really
the automobile business.
It's a great business, it's a wonderful business,
but it's been pretty much hurt here.
But it's not going to be hurt for long,
that I can tell you.
(Applause.)
That I can tell you.
I'm sure you've all heard the big news that we're
going to work on the CAFE standards, so you can make
cars in America again.
(Applause.)
We're going to help the companies, and
they're going to help you.
There is no more beautiful sight than an
American-made car.
No more beautiful sight.
(Applause.)
I love this state, I love the
people of this state.
And you did me a big favor, because you gave me
a victory, and that victory hasn't been won by
a Republican in a long time -- long time.
(Applause.)
And you're going to be very happy, believe me.
You're going to be very, very happy.
During the campaign, I came to Michigan again and
again, and I made this promise, that I am going
to fight for your jobs and fight very, very hard.
(Applause.)
I'm going to fight for Michigan workers.
I'm going to fight to keep the automobile production
in the United States of America, not outside -- in
the United States.
(Applause.)
And, by the way, for those that have any
doubts, many other industries do.
That's okay, right?
So we're here not simply to honor the past, but to
devote ourselves to a new future of American
automotive leadership.
We want to be the car capital of
the world again.
We will be.
And it won't be long, believe me.
(Applause.)
And, by the way, we're going to have a
very big announcement next week having to do with
your industry.
Very, very big.
Very important.
Everybody is saying, "what is it?"
Let's keep them guessing back there.
(Laughter.)
You've heard me say the words, and I'll
repeat them, right now: Buy American and
Hire American.
(Applause.)
It's not just a motto, it's a pledge.
It's a pledge to the working people
of this country.
The era of economic surrender for the United
States is over -- it's over.
And you see what's already been happening: plants are
coming back; other plants that were expected to be
built in other countries are not being built.
I just want to tell the leaders they made some
very wise decisions.
Very wise. Very wise.
(Applause.)
Some plants that were announced,
they're not going to be built.
They're smart.
We're going to stand up to foreign cheating.
We're going to crack down on currency manipulation.
And, yes, we're going to use the full economic
powers of our country to protect our workers and to
protect our jobs.
Let me also say how important it is for me
that we have every segment of this great American
industry represented in our audience today.
We have everybody.
To succeed as a country, we have to work together.
We have to fight, side-by-side, to protect
our industry and to stop the jobs from
leaving our country.
It's not going to happen anymore, folks.
We've gone through it for many, many years, decades.
It's not going to happen anymore.
And if it is, there's consequences to pay for
the companies that desert us and fire our employees.
There are consequences.
(Applause.)
Already, we're seeing jobs coming back.
Since my election, Ford has announced 700 new jobs
coming back to their plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.
(Applause.)
Fiat-Chrysler has announced that
they will create 2,000 new jobs in Michigan and Ohio.
(Applause.)
And just today -- breaking news -- General Motors announced
that they're adding or
keeping 900 jobs right here in Michigan, and
that's going to be over the next 12 months.
And that's just the beginning, folks.
In fact, I told them, that's peanuts --
that's peanuts.
(Applause.)
We're going to have a lot more.
They're going to be building new plants,
expanding their plants.
My administration will work tirelessly to
eliminate the industry-killing
regulations, to lower the job-crushing taxes, and to
ensure a level playing field for all American
companies and workers.
Before NAFTA went into effect -- by the way,
NAFTA, a total disaster -- there were 280,000
autoworkers in Michigan.
Today, that number is roughly 165,000 -- and
would have been heading down big league if I
didn't get elected, I will tell you that right now.
That I can tell you.
(Applause.)
Plenty of things were stopped
in their tracks.
They were stopped in their tracks.
A lot of bad things were going to happen.
A lot of places were going to get built that aren't
going to get built right now in other locations.
The number of auto plants in the state has been
cut by a third.
Motor City once set the standard of living
for the nation.
Now it has suffered under decades of failed economic
decisions that have stripped our country of
its jobs and of its wealth.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- another
disaster -- threatened states like Michigan,
Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and so many
others with the loss of countless more jobs.
That is why I'm proud to say I followed through on
my promise -- and, by the way, many other promises.
You've seen what's happened. Many.
(Applause.)
And immediately withdrew the
United States from the TPP.
I kept my word.
The assault on the American auto industry,
believe me, is over.
It's over.
(Applause.)
Not going to happen anymore.
We are setting up a task force in every federal
agency to identify and remove any regulation that
undermines American auto production and any other
kind of production, including the production
of high-end, low-end, big, small, every form of
automobile and truck.
During my first week in office, I brought American
auto companies to the White House.
Mary Barra is here.
Mark Fields is here.
Sergio is here, and others.
And none of them ever got to see the Oval Office
before, because nobody took them into the Oval
Office -- our Presidents.
They employ tens of thousands of people, but I
brought them into the Oval Office because they're
going to be expanding their companies.
(Applause.)
But they all told me the same thing.
They explained that the previous administration
promised you a so-called "mid-term review" of the
federal fuel efficiency standards.
It was necessary because the standards were set far
into the future -- way, way into the future.
If the standards threatened auto jobs, then
commonsense changes could
have and should have been made.
Just days before my inauguration, the previous
administration cut short the promised mid-term
review in an 11th-hour executive action.
Today, I am announcing that we are going to
cancel that executive action.
(Applause.)
We are going to restore the originally
scheduled mid-term review, and we are going to ensure
that any regulations we have protect and defend
your jobs, your factories.
We're going to be fair.
This is an issue of deep importance to me.
For decades, I have raised the alarm over unfair
foreign trade practices that have robbed
communities of their wealth and robbed our
people of their ability to provide for
their families.
They've stolen our jobs, they've stolen our
companies, and our politicians sat back and
watched, hopeless.
Not anymore.
As a private citizen, I looked, really with
sadness, as massive shipments of foreign cars
have been dumped onto our shores while those same
countries have shut their borders to our cars.
We take them -- "Come on in, folks.
Come on in.
No tax.
Don't worry about it." W make cars; they
don't take us.
Not anymore.
(Applause.)
Since NAFTA was approved, we've lost
nearly one-third of our manufacturing jobs in the
United States.
Since China entered the World Trade Organization,
we've lost 60,000 factories.
Hard to believe.
Our trade deficit last year reached nearly
$800 billion.
Who's making these deals?
I can take anybody in the audience -- you'll do
better, believe me.
(Laughter.)
These statistics really should
have shaken up Washington to do action, but
nothing happened.
But something did happen -- happened on November 8th.
Believe me, it happened.
It happened for you.
(Applause.)
But the politicians made excuses.
They have said these chronic trade deficits
have helped us to win friends abroad.
I don't want friends abroad if that's what it's
going to take.
We don't need friends abroad for that.
Do you ever see that, where they said, "No, no,
it's good for us because people like us abroad"?
They don't like us -- they think we're stupid people.
(Laughter.)
But no friendship is strengthened
through economic abuse -- because we have
been abused.
And no country can long lead the free world if it
does not protect its industries and care for
its people and protect its borders.
(Applause.)
America will be respected again, and
you, as workers, will be respected again.
Believe me, you will be respected again.
Soon. Now.
I think it's already happened.
Our great Presidents, from Washington to Jefferson to
Jackson to Lincoln, all understood that a great
nation must protect its manufacturing, must
protect itself from the outside.
Today, I will be visiting the home of Andrew Jackson
on the 250th anniversary of his birth.
And they say my election was most similar
to his -- 1828.
That's a long time ago.
Usually they go back like to this one, or that one,
12 years ago, 16.
I mean, 1828, that's a long way.
That's a long time ago.
In supporting tariffs, Jackson said, "I look at
the tariff with an eye to the proper distribution of
labor, and to revenue, and with a view to discharge
our national debt."
We owe $20 trillion -- $20 trillion
with our policies.
America cannot be a wealthy country if special
interests game the system to profit from the exodus
of our companies and from the exodus of our jobs.
We must embrace a new economic model.
Let's call it "The American Model."
(Applause.)
Under this system, we will reduce
burdens on our companies and on our businesses.
But, in exchange, companies must hire and
grow in America.
They have to hire and grow in our country.
That is how we will succeed and grow together
-- American workers and American industry
side-by-side.
Nobody can beat us, folks.
Nobody can beat us.
(Applause.)
Because whether we are rich or
poor, young or old, black or brown or white, we all
bleed the same red blood of patriots.
(Applause.)
Great Americans of all
backgrounds built the Arsenal of Democracy --
including the legendary Rosie the Riveter, who
worked here at Willow Run.
You know that.
(Applause.)
Seventy-five years ago, during
the Second World War, thousands of American
workers filled this very building to build the
great new airplanes -- the B-24 Liberator.
At peak production -- listen to this -- it's not
the country that we've been watching over the
last 20 years -- they were building one B-24 every
single hour.
(Applause.)
We don't hear that.
We don't hear that anymore, do we?
We'll be back.
We'll be back soon.
Most amazing people.
And while that's incredible, it's a tribute
really to the teamwork, determination, and
patriotism that lives on today in each and
every one of you.
Great people.
You're great people.
Now, these hundreds of acres that defended our
democracy are going to help build the cars and
cities of the future.
(Applause.)
So I ask you -- that's fine because
you're right --
(laughter)
-- so I ask you today to
join me in daring to believe that this
facility, this city, and this nation will once
again shine with industrial might.
(Applause.)
I am asking you to place your faith in
the American worker and these great
American companies.
(Applause.)
I'm also asking you to respect and
place your faith in companies from foreign
lands that come here to build their product.
We love them too, right?
We love them too.
(Applause.)
I'm asking all of the companies here
today to join us in this new Industrial Revolution.
Let us put American workers, American
families, and American dreams first once again.
May God bless the American worker.
May God bless the Motor City.
And may God bless the United States of America.
Thank you.
(Applause.)
Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.