BAY CITY, Michigan — Vice President JD Vance traveled to central Michigan Friday to deliver a speech extolling the benefits of President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.
The area Vance visited could be a vital county in determining the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 general elections.
Trump carried Bay County in 2016, 2020, and 2024, but freshman Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI) won the working-class 8th district in the last election. She previously told the Washington Examiner that focusing on “pocketbook” problems and “just being real” was essential to securing victory in a contested district in a critical battleground.
As the president has recently taken to doing so, Vance claimed during remarks at a Vantage Plastics manufacturing facility that the administration won’t be able to reverse inflation “overnight” but reiterated a commitment to rebuilding America’s manufacturing capacity.
“Now, I have to be honest with you. The road ahead of us is long,” the vice president declared. “But we are already, in just seven short weeks, starting to see early indications of the president’s vision becoming our shared American reality.”
Vance specifically defended Trump’s use of steep tariffs on the United States’s trading partners in an effort to redefine global commerce, despite the negative effect the policies are having on U.S. stock markets.
“You hear people saying, ‘How dare Donald Trump impose tariffs on foreign countries that have been taking advantage of us for years?’” he said. “Unless you are willing to use American power to fight back against what those countries have been doing for a generation, you are never going to rebuild American manufacturing.”
Vance had been scheduled to tour the facility and observe a number of steps in Vantage’s fabrication process, but White House aides say the tour was canceled due to shifts in the vice president’s schedule. Vance, who routinely engages with the press while traveling, also declined to answer reporters’ questions about Trump’s ongoing negotiations with Ukraine and Russia to bring about a lasting ceasefire.
Despite the truncated appearance, Vance received an extremely warm welcome from the roughly 200 attendees within the facility, including several individuals sporting MAGA-branded hats and shirts. Multiple lines from Vance’s speech earned raucous cheers and chants of “U-S-A!” from the crowd.
But outside the facility, a significant protest had gathered to deliver a much icier message to the vice president. By the time Vance departed the Vantage facility, that group had swelled to roughly 100, with a number of protesters holding signs calling Vance a “traitor” or alluding to falsified rumors dating back to the campaign trail about the vice president performing sex acts on household furniture.
The vice president briefly commented on the protest during his remarks inside the facility.
“I’m sure all of us saw there are a few protesters outside. I can’t be the only person wondering — it’s a little after noon on a Friday. Don’t you all have jobs?” he joked.
“That’s one of the reasons we have got to rebuild American manufacturing,” the vice president continued. “We want those people to get off the streets and back to work.”
Vance received similar treatment during a Thursday night appearance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
A number of videos showed the vice president being booed upon his and Second Lady Usha Vance’s arrival at a National Symphony Orchestra concert.
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Vance, an Ohio native, makes no apologies about his feelings regarding life in the nation’s Capitol, a point he revisited Friday afternoon.
“It’s good to be back in God’s country,” he said moments after taking the stage in Michigan. “I’ve got to tell you. Every opportunity I get to get the hell out of Washington, D.C. — that is a good day.”