Donald Trump took his bigly COVID rally to rural Michigan on Thursday, making wild, inaccurate claims of saving the auto industry.
“We brought you a lot of car plants, we brought you a lot … and we’re going to bring you a lot more,” Trump said. The truth is that one Jeep plant was announced in Trump’s term, while GM idled four plants, two in Michigan. One of those two has been revived to build electric vehicles, while the other one was building face masks, and its future is uncertain.
As of February, there were about 2,400 fewer auto and auto parts jobs in Michigan than when Trump took office in January 2017. There are even fewer now as the economy recovers from the coronavirus shutdown, though it’s up from where it was when auto plants were shut down almost entirely in April.
And yet…….“You better vote for me, I got you so many damn car plants.”
As for the Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, Trump said she should re-open up the state, which has mostly already happened. “You’d be doing a lot better if you had a governor who knew what the hell she was doing.” Whitmer’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has been largely positive, with a recent poll showing 59% approval.
Also newsworthy at the bigly COVID rally was the removal of a New York Times reporter, Kathleen Gray. A former Detroit Free Press political reporter, Gray was freelancing for the New York Times on Thursday. Gray did not receive campaign-issued media credentials, although she made repeated attempts to get them. She was escorted out for being in the general audience area after campaign officials found her in the crowd after tweeting about MAGAts without masks.
Freeland is approximately 20 miles south of Edenville and Sanford where a dam failure caused flooding in May. Trump noted the dam was owned by a private company. “I think we’re going to have to sue the ass off the company,” Trump said.
Sources from Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.
Also Freep here.