The Trump Who Spoke in Michigan Cannot be Defeated
Watching a debate between a bunch of candidates who have no chance of winning the Republican nomination for president felt the same as watching a Beatles tribute band, so I decided to check out President Trump’s Wednesday speech in Michigan instead.
The backdrop was perfect. He spoke at a company called Drake Industries, an auto parts supplier in Clinton Township, about a half mile outside of Detroit. On a raised platform in front of racks of inventory, Trump addressed an overflow, enthusiastic crowd for just over an hour. Apparently, there were over 10,000 people waiting outside to get into the packed warehouse.
Over the course of the last year, I listened to several of Trump’s speeches and came away, well, less than inspired. He often sounded like he wished he was somewhere else, and sometimes, he seemed to be going through the motions, delivering a standard stump speech that focused primarily on the 2020 rigged election, an issue that has been thoroughly exhausted politically.
But not this night.
Trump was absolutely at the top of his game: on point, funny and passionate. The president always delivers his best speeches when he uses the teleprompter as an outline and then spontaneously riffs on the details of the point he’s making. Throughout the speech, and to the delight of the audience, Trump went off script repeatedly, coming across as genuine, knowledgeable and caring.
His main point, which is one that cannot be overstated, explained how the United Auto Workers union (UAW), and the auto industry in general, are in grave danger of fading into oblivion if the internal combustion engine (ICE) emissions standards proposed by the EPA (an unelected bureaucracy) are adopted. In essence, the Biden government is attempting to ban ICE engines completely by 2027, which will effectively force people into electric vehicles (EVs) or public transportation.
In his speech, Trump made it a point to remind the audience that their strike against the Big Three automakers will be totally irrelevant if the EPA gets its way, and ICE vehicles are banned. As he pointed out, correctly, electric vehicle production will be dominated by China. This point is not debatable. China currently is the number one producer of battery metals, controlling 80% of the global refining capacity for the raw materials needed to produce lithium batteries. This includes 60% of the world’s graphite production.
To make matters worse, the other major producers of EV battery metals include the Congo, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Indonesia and several third world countries. Many of these nations have either an unfavorable view of the United States or an unstable government. In essence, we would be moving our geographic reliance for transportation from the middle east to a host of countries that could potentially be much worse. This is especially important since our dependance on the middle east for oil is entirely elective, and it would end very quickly in a Trump presidency.
Trump also talked about how dangerous EVs are to the environment, but the argument he continued to hammer home was that EV production will be controlled by China forever, and if the U.S. government is successful in its efforts to eliminate ICE vehicles, there will be no UAW in a few short years.
When you hear Trump speak of his notable accomplishments, you are reminded of just how successful his presidency really was. With gas prices at $2 per gallon, inflation under 2%, the border secure, and average Americans flush with cash, it’s easy to forget just how good we had it in the mid to late 2010s.
Noticeably missing from the speech was any reference to the rigged 2020 election. Hopefully, with the exception of the court battles, Trump continues to stay away from that subject because it’s no longer a winning issue in 2024. By now, anyone who cares about election integrity understands how leftist Democrats and woke zealots likely altered election results in battleground states through nefarious means. In these troubled times, voters want optimism, and in that respect, Trump delivered a boatload in his Michigan Speech.
The Man Who Spoke in Michigan Cannot be Beat
The Trump campaign is beginning to seize on issues where Biden and the Democrats are most vulnerable. In the Midwest, that means plain talk to autoworkers about the significant threat EVs represent to their jobs. In the Southwest, that means talking about the damage that’s being done to the environment and neighborhoods by the relentless flood of illegal aliens Biden won’t stop. In Arizona, it means talking about the massive price increase consumers will have to bear when new refrigerant standards are implemented. All across the country, Biden and his leftist cronies have done so much damage to America, voters are yearning to hear someone offering a message of optimism.
Give us the Michigan Trump for the rest of the campaign, and no matter how much the Democrats try to rig the 2024 election, John Roberts will be swearing in Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025.
