In January 2024, United Automobile Workers (UAW) Boss Shawn Fain endorsed Joe Biden for re-election after a tenuous worker strike that lasted approximately six weeks. In his statement, the longtime Democrat claimed that President Trump “doesn’t care about the American worker,” however, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, Joe Biden caused the strike by his forced electric vehicle (EV) transition, leading to $5.5 billion in losses for the Big Three auto manufacturers—Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors. Worst of all, although tentative deals were made, ten thousand autoworkers will still get laid off this year. Come November, UAW autoworkers must ask themselves: are they really better off under President Biden than they were under President Trump?
Biden’s EV Transition Failed Autoworkers
For 40 years, Biden sat in the U.S. Senate and then as Vice President of the United States while the U.S. auto industry was devastated by cheap foreign cars flooding our market from Korea, Mexico, and China. Under Biden, American manufacturing reached its lowest levels of productivity since the Chinese Communist Party Virus pandemic. Thanks to Biden’s anti-worker policies, the U.S. is currently struggling with a nearly $1 trillion trade deficit, largely caused by a surge in imports of cars and car parts from Europe, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and Korea.
Despite massive subsidies offered by the Biden Administration, the forced EV transition has destroyed thousands of American jobs and proven itself unprofitable—even prior to the UAW strike. The Big Three already planned to slash 8,000 jobs[JM1] to cut costs. Last year, Ford lost $4.7 billion from its switch to EV production alone, which is over a $1 billion increase in projected losses from the initial $3 billion loss projection. In 2022, GM estimated that it will be producing EVs at a loss until at least 2025. In the third quarter of 2022, GM increased its spending on EVs, which resulted in a 43% drop in cash flow for the quarter. In 2021, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares commented on the artificial EV transition describing its costs as “beyond the limits” of what the auto industry could possibly sustain.
A report published by the America First Policy Institute projects that up to 117,000 American auto jobs will disappear as a result of Biden’s forced EV transition, due to the fact that EVs have less parts, and require 40% less labor to manufacture than gas-powered vehicles. Worst of all, American workers in the Rust Belt will bear the brunt of these losses—Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio are projected to lose up to 55,000 jobs.
Not to mention, China possesses monopolies on the critical minerals necessary to make EV batteries, while Joe Biden has made mining for critical minerals nearly impossible in the U.S. Therefore, Biden’s destructive EV rules will automatically result in an American auto industry entirely dependent on China.
President Trump, the Autoworkers’ Champion
President Trump tirelessly supported American autoworkers beginning on day one of his first term by pulling out of the Biden-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership which would have flooded the American market with even more foreign cars than it already was. He delivered on his promise to renegotiate North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which cost approximately 305,000 American auto jobs, and entered into the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement. USMCA, still in effect, has already created 90,000 new U.S. auto jobs.
President Trump’s tariffs on China secured the American auto industry, decreasing Chinese auto parts imports by approximately 50%, while keeping auto manufacturers Ford, GM, and Volvo producing vehicles in the U.S. Under Trump, Ford and GM invested over $2 billion in domestic auto-manufacturing in plants across Michigan, creating over 4,000 new auto-manufacturing jobs. In August 2017, Toyota and Mazda announced their plan to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Huntsville, Alabama, creating 4,000 jobs. In March 2019, Ford invested an additional $850 million in Flat Rock, creating 900 jobs. And lastly, even during the CCP Virus, GM announced expansions as part of an over $1 billion investment to produce the Chevrolet Traverse, the Buick Enclave, and the Cadillac CT4 and CT5 in its Lansing, Michigan plants, creating approximately 1,200 jobs.
President Trump’s Plan to Save Auto Jobs Once Again
Last week, President Trump promised a 100% tariff on Chinese automobiles currently being made in Mexico and exported to the U.S.—a loophole in the USMCA being blatantly exploited by China under Biden’s watch. Autoworkers should take this as a clear signal that President Trump, unlike Joe Biden, will take strong, meaningful, action to protect their jobs and wages, as he did during his first term.
President Trump will immediately revoke all of Biden’s EV mandates and fuel economy standards, which have forced companies to drastically raise prices of automobiles and eliminate production of highly profitable gas-powered vehicles. He also will impose a series of universal baseline border tariffs on most imported goods to prevent foreign companies from stealing U.S. jobs once again. President Trump also plans on passing the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act through Congress, which will require the U.S. to impose a reciprocal tariff of the same value on the same good a foreign country imposes a tariff on, such as cars or car parts.
Policies like these will result in a reduced trade deficit—particularly with China—grow wages, and create thousands of new manufacturing jobs. It is evident that America needs its pro-autoworkers president back, who has a proven track record of defending auto jobs and securing our manufacturing base. In November, the UAW workers should disregard Fain’s weak Biden endorsement and vote for President Trump, to ensure their jobs and wages stay in America.
S. Karol Paul has experience in trade and manufacturing policy and is a contributor to Peter Navarro’s Taking Back Trump’s America
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My brother is a Teamster.
The union thug bosses tell him weekly he "must vote for Biden."
He laughs at them.
He, and all his co-workers plan to vote for DJT.
Very insightful article and completely accurate. I live in Michigan. We have 12 assembly plants here that produce very profitable ICE pick up trucks and America's favorite SUV's, mostly the larger ones preferred by most. These models are the bedrock of the American auto manufacturers sales and importantly profits. The EV "transition" if not forced on us, by Biden's illegitimate administration, won't impact these operations. Those models will serve a niche market for the folks who can make the EV work for them and is preferred. For the vast majority of the rest of us, leave us the hell alone. We'd prefer you stop the nonsensical green new deal policies that aren't accomplishing anything other than driving up our energy costs and inflation in general. The Biden squad has no common sense. All 12 of those assembly plants will shut down within 10 years, as any conversions will do down south where "right to work" laws are in effect or overseas. Get smart folks. This pathway of Biden's is going to definitely be a BLOODBATH!!!