Trump visits Ford plant and defends his tariffs, hoping to counter
jitters about the economy
[January 14, 2026]
By WILL WEISSERT and COREY WILLIAMS
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump offered a full-throated defense of
his sweeping tariffs on Tuesday, traveling to swing-state Michigan to
push the case that he’s boosted domestic manufacturing in hopes of
countering fears about a weakening job market and still-rising prices
that have squeezed American pocketbooks.
Trump visited the factory floor of a Ford plant in Dearborn, where he
viewed F-150s — the bestselling domestic vehicle in the U.S. — at
various stages of production. That included seeing how gas and hybrid
models were built, as well as the all-gas Raptor model, designed for
off-road use.
The president chatted with assembly line workers as well as the
automaker’s executive chairman, Bill Ford, a descendent of Henry Ford.
“All U.S. automakers are doing great," Trump said.
He later gave a speech to the Detroit Economic Club that was meant to be
focused on his economic policies but veered heavily to other topics as
well. Those included falsely claiming to have won Michigan three times
(he lost the state in 2020 to Joe Biden) and recalling the snakes that
felled workers during U.S. efforts to build the Panama Canal more than a
century ago.
“The results are in, and the Trump economic boom has officially begun,”
the president said at the MotorCity Casino. He argued that “one of the
biggest reasons for this unbelievable success has been our historic use
of tariffs.”
Trump falsely insists tariffs haven't increased costs
The president said that tariffs were “overwhelmingly” paid by “foreign
nations and middlemen” — even as economists say steep import taxes are
simply passed from overseas manufactures to U.S. consumers, helping
exacerbate fears about the rising cost of living.
“It’s tariffs that are making money for Michigan and the entire
country,” the president said, insisting that “every prediction the
critics made about our tariff policy has failed to materialize.”
But voters remain worried about the state of the economy. The Michigan
stop — his third trip to a swing state since last month to talk about
his economic policies — followed a poor showing for Republicans in
November’s off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere amid
persistent concerns about kitchen table issues.
The White House pledged after Election Day that Trump would hit the road
more frequently to talk directly to the public about what he is doing to
ease their financial fears. The president tried to drive that home on
Tuesday, but only amid lengthy asides.
“I go off teleprompter about 80% of the time, but isn’t it nice to have
a president who can go off teleprompter?” he said, before mocking Biden,
suggesting his predecessor gave short speeches and doing an impression
that included a dramatic clearing of his throat.
Trump promised to unveil a new “health care affordability framework”
later this week that he promised would lower the cost of care. He also
pledged to soon offer more plans to help with affordability nationwide —
even as he blamed Democrats for hyping up the issue.
“One of our top priorities of this mission is promoting greater
affordability. Now, that’s a word used by the Democrats," Trump said.
“They’re the ones who caused the problem.”
Trump eased some auto tariffs
Despite cheering tariffs, Trump has actually backed off the import taxes
when it comes to the automobile sector. The president originally
announced 25% tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, only to later relax
those, seeking to provide domestic automakers some relief from seeing
their production costs rise.
Ford nonetheless announced in December that it was scrapping plans to
make an electric F-150, despite pouring billions of dollars into broader
electrification. That followed the Trump administration slashing targets
to have half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030, eliminated EV
tax credits and proposed weakening the emissions and gas mileage rules.
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President Donald Trump gestures from the stairs of Air Force One as
he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, Jan.
13, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
While touring the plant, video posted by TMZ showed Trump making an
obscene gesture at someone who was yelling at him from afar. White
House spokesman Steven Cheung said "a lunatic was wildly screaming
expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an
appropriate and unambiguous response.”
Trump also suggested during the tour that a major North American
trade pact he negotiated during his first term, the United
States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, was irrelevant and no longer
necessary for the United States — though he provided few details.
Known as the USMCA, it is up for review this year.
Trump largely sidesteps Powell investigation
The president's attempt to shift national attention to his efforts
to spur the economy comes as his Department of Justice has launched
a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a
move that Powell says is a blatant endeavor to undermine the central
bank's independence in setting interest rates.
Critics of the move include former Fed chairs, economic officials
and even some Republican lawmakers. Trump lobbed his often-repeated
criticisms of Powell during his trip, but offered little mention of
the investigation.
Some good economic news for Trump arrived, though, before he left
Washington, with new data from December showing inflation declined a
bit last month as prices for gas and used cars fell — a sign that
cost pressures are slowly easing. Consumer prices rose 0.3% in
December from the prior month, the Labor Department said, the same
as in November.
“We have quickly achieved the exact opposite of stagflation, almost
no inflation and super-high growth,” he said in his speech.
Trump has made other economic policy speeches
The Michigan stop follows speeches Trump gave last month in
Pennsylvania — where his gripes about immigrants arriving to the
U.S. from “filthy” countries got more attention than his pledges to
fight inflation — and North Carolina, where he also insisted his
tariffs have spurred the economy, despite residents noting the sting
of higher prices.
Like in Michigan, Trump also used a casino as a backdrop to talk
about the economy in Pennsylvania, giving his speech there at Mount
Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono.
Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and 2024, after it swung Democratic
and backed Biden in 2020. He marked his first 100 days in office
with a rally-style April speech outside Detroit, where he focused
more on past campaign grudges than his administration's economic or
policy plans.
Democrats seized on Trump's latest trip to the state to recall his
visit in October 2024, when Trump, then also addressing the Detroit
Economic Club, said that Democrats' retaining the White House would
mean “our whole country will end up being like Detroit."
"You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said during a
campaign stop back then.
About 100 people protested outside the venue where Trump spoke
Tuesday, including Kassandra Rodriguez, a member of the Detroit
Community Action Committee.
“He says a lot, but he means very little and I think we can see
that,” Rodriguez said of the president. “He doesn’t know how to
enact real policy in a real way.”
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Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter
Michelle L. Price contributed to this report from Washington.
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