WARREN, Michigan — President Donald Trump gambled his presidency and the economy on a sweeping tariff strategy that his blue-collar supporters in Michigan are counting on will work.
After announcing “Liberation Day” tariffs on nearly 90 countries, ratcheting up a trade war with China, and hitting Canada and Mexico with fresh levies, it was fitting that Trump spent his 100th day in office in a pocket of America all too familiar with the loss of manufacturing jobs.
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Under Trump’s theory of the case, ending trade imbalances with other countries will force companies to build more in the USA and spark a revival of the Motor City. However, skeptics warn that if Trump fully carries out his tariff regime, much of which is on pause as trade deal talks are underway, the result will be higher consumer prices for the very workers who helped return him to the White House.
“A lot of auto jobs are coming,” Trump declared before a crowd of hundreds at Macomb County Community College. “[Companies] all want to come back to Michigan and build cars again. You know why? Because of our tax and tariff policy, they’re coming from all over the world. They’re coming up and they’re opening up lands, and they’re talking to us all day and all night.”
“The automobile business in Michigan will boom. It’s going to happen,” Trump added. “It’s going to get better than ever before, and it won’t even be close. Companies will be pouring back into Michigan.”
Still, a number of rally attendees who spoke with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday declined to answer questions about the president’s tariff agenda, with several saying they didn’t fully understand the economic theory behind Trump’s policies but “trusted” his judgment.
Other Trump supporters in attendance sounded much more confident in defending the tariff agenda.
Brian Pannebecker, a MAGA-famous retired autoworker who regularly attends Trump rallies in Michigan, was brought on stage by the president to endorse the policies. Following Trump’s speech, Pannebecker told the Washington Examiner that tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to Michigan and the rest of the heartland.
“They understand these issues. And it had gotten so fragmented — parts would go across the border, they’d get put into an assembly. They come back across the border and get added to something else to go back across the border,” he said in an interview. “I’ll tell you, what the goal of the tariffs are in one sentence: to force our domestic auto companies to bring back the plants that they relocated [to Canada and Mexico].”
Lynn Caverall, another retired auto worker and Macomb County native, added that he is “pleased with absolutely everything Donald Trump is doing for America right now,” including putting stiff tariffs on trading partners.
“I spent a lot of time working in the auto factories around the metro-Detroit area, and I saw the exodus of jobs to Mexico and other countries,” he stated. “So my sense of the workers here in America, especially in this area, is they’re really optimistic and looking forward to the work coming back. I think the tariffs are going to reset the economy as we know it. We’ve been on the wrong end of trade for years and years, so it’s time for a reset.”
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Macomb County, a bellwether county in Michigan, has helped decide the past three elections, in part because auto workers and other blue-collar workers have supported Trump over the Democratic presidential nominee as they have done since the late President Ronald Reagan’s popularity among the same demographic gave rise to the term Reagan Democrats.
Trump won Michigan in 2016 against that election’s Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, by 11,000 votes, dismantling what has been described as the blue wall, or a dozen or so Midwest states that had backed Democrats between 1992 and 2012.
Trump may have lost Michigan to former President Joe Biden in 2020 by 154,000 votes, but he made amends last year against then-Vice President Kamala Harris, winning the state by 80,000 ballots, a response, in part, to the Biden administration’s support of electric vehicles, an unpopular policy among auto workers and other Reagan Democrats who were at risk of losing or lost their jobs during the transition.
The United Auto Workers did endorse Harris during the 2024 campaign, but the group and president Shawn Fain threw their support behind Trump’s tariffs in late March, contending it would increase domestic manufacturing and American jobs.
But with Trump’s approval rating entering negative territory last month, at least according to RealClearPolitics, and now being at net negative 7 percentage points on his 100th day in office, his popularity in Michigan, particularly among that state’s auto workers, could have repercussions for his agenda and Republicans’ performance in next year’s midterm elections. To that end, Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order providing relief from auto-related tariffs, which he mentioned during his remarks Tuesday evening.
“Unions and auto workers are the strongest supporters of the tariffs. Trump’s popularity is strong in Macomb County and with blue collar workers,” Jamie Roe, the longtime chief of staff to former Macomb County Republican Rep. Candice Miller, told the Washington Examiner. “First president ever who is putting workers ahead of Wall Street, wants more manufacturing jobs, and willing to stick it to China instead of selling out. Trump’s base is well entrenched here.”
However, Joshua Koss, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Michigan University, argued that Trump could lose support from Michigan’s auto workers and fully voting populace if the tariffs lead to significant price increases or fail to deliver new jobs in an expedient manner.
“If anyone is going to support this tariff agenda, you would think this would be the only, or at least one of the top, groups that would be in favor of it,” Koss explained. “But auto workers are kind of the same as everyone else, where they’re still going to be affected by increased prices on all their other commodities.”
“Voters generally aren’t willing to give that much of a runway to it once they start seeing their bills are racking up the cost. I think that’s pretty much when they’ll kind of turn on him,” he continued. “But there’s that question of, how much does the voters turning on him matter, right? If he’s sort of essentially a lame duck for the next four years, there’s no real electoral accountability.”
Mike LaFaive, senior director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center, similarly said that Trump’s tariffs will “raise the cost of living, working and creating jobs and economic growth.”
“Protectionist policies may sound good to some on paper. There’s an idea that if we just raise the cost of imports then locals — including local automakers — may thrive due to the decrease in international competition,” he continued. “But consumers everywhere then have to pay for that protection in the form of higher prices and fewer choices.”
For his 100-day celebrations, Trump first stopped at Macomb County’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base, where the president and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) announced plans for a new commission for the base, marking Whitmer’s third appearance alongside Trump since January. Trump said he planned to replace the base’s A-10 Warthogs with more than 20 F-15EV Eagle II’s.
Trump’s headline event, a campaign-style rally, took place at the Macomb Community College Sports & Expo Center. The president unleashed a nearly 2-hour-long speech where he sought to hammer home the alleged positive impact his tariffs will have on Warren and similar auto-manufacturing focused communities across the state.
Meanwhile, Democrats remain adamant they can make amends in Michigan in 2026 and 2028 with the state’s auto workers, who were once core members of the Democratic Party’s base.
“I believe that on an entry level, basic level most of the workers are concerned [about] the tariffs and how [they are] gonna affect the auto industry, however leadership [is] split between giving him some time and being realistic about the potential results of his tariff policy,” Sameh Elhady, a member of the Macomb County Democratic Party who has criticized Democrats in the past, told the Washington Examiner.
Alysa Diebolt, Macomb County Democratic Party spokeswoman, agreed that support for Trump “is wavering among folks,” in part because of the tariffs.
“I’m already hearing of layoffs in automotive plants,” Diebolt told the Washington Examiner. “I’m also hearing from folks who work in some of our various military places comments like, ‘I didn’t think he’d be coming after me’ in regards to DOGE.”
For example, Stellantis temporarily fired 900 workers last month at five U.S. facilities and paused production at one assembly plant each in Mexico and Canada after Trump announced tariffs.
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Elhady’s advice to Democrats was to workshop the party’s message and offer a clear alternative vision, noting “we are not clear about what we stand for yet and who we stand with.”
“We [are] always concerned about pleasing a party or disappointing or eliminating another party,” he said. “I think we need to be clear about what we want to do and how we [are] gonna do it, and allowing new blood to be [on] the front line.”