{"id":17824,"date":"2026-01-17T01:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/whitmer-warns-trumps-tariff-strategy-aids-china-in-detroit-auto-show-speech\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:22:16","slug":"whitmer-warns-trumps-tariff-strategy-aids-china-in-detroit-auto-show-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/whitmer-warns-trumps-tariff-strategy-aids-china-in-detroit-auto-show-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitmer warns Trump&#8217;s tariff strategy aids China in Detroit Auto Show speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/isabella-volmert\">             <picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Associated Press reporter Isabella Volmert is shown in Indianapolis, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo\/Michael Conroy)\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/c14fc30\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5353x5353+1782+0\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F2b%2F2d%2F1bc07e494da5961fda3e33375369%2Fissy101-isabella-volmert.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1768499446000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>DETROIT (AP) &mdash; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered a contrasting view of manufacturing in Detroit Thursday, two days after President Donald Trump <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-michigan-manufacturing-8843cdb26cdfcdf9bf8c8273823c6d84\">defended his tariff strategy<\/a><\/span>  in the Motor City. <\/p>\n<p>Whitmer, a term-limited Democrat who is in her last year as governor, said in a speech at the Detroit Auto Show that the administration&rsquo;s tariff strategy has hurt American auto manufacturing and is benefiting Chinese competitors. It&rsquo;s a message she has repeated over the past year as economic uncertainty has rippled across the automobile sector. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This will only get worse without a serious shift in national policy,&rdquo; Whitmer said. <\/p>\n<p>Her remarks followed Trump&rsquo;s speech defending his economic policy Tuesday in Detroit, a major hub of automobile manufacturing. He also toured the factory floor of a Ford plant in Dearborn. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All U.S. automakers are doing great,&rdquo; Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Whitmer offered a differing picture of the impact, saying that American manufacturing has contracted for months leading to job loss and production cuts. She has remained firmly opposed to Trump&rsquo;s tariff strategy since last year, especially as her state partners closely with Canadian business. Automobile parts often cross the U.S.-Canadian border several times in the assembly process. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;America stands more alone than she has in decades,&rdquo; Whitmer said. &ldquo;And perhaps no industry has seen more change and been more impacted than our auto industry.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div data-module-tracksubscribe data-gtm-topic=\"No Value\" data-align-center>\n<p>Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Va7Tv2j59PwNEyqGCi1y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">            <span>Follow on<\/span>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/f50b139\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/131x31+0+0\/resize\/131x31!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F8c%2Fe0%2F2615e5984b5ebb8b89fd3ade6941%2Fwhatsapp-logo.png\" alt=\"WhatsApp\">        <\/a>    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Whitmer&rsquo;s speech. <\/p>\n<p>Whitmer has kept a more cordial relationship with Trump in his second term compared to his first. The relationship included a <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-whitmer-white-house-visit-81a9d466f911f85fdfc3c4398d7d1b9b\">few White House visits<\/a><\/span>  last year. Long considered a possible Democratic candidate for president, Whitmer&rsquo;s strategy is notably different than other potential 2028 names who have take more public, combative approaches to Trump, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. <\/p>\n<p>In her address, her first of the year, Whitmer said every time she has met with Trump this past year, she has told him that hurting the U.S.-Canadian relationship only helps Chinese competition. <\/p>\n<p>Trump changed his tune when it comes to automobiles in the last year. He originally announced a 25% tariff on automobiles and parts only to later <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tariffs-automakers-factories-relief-25a400c98e02c01c8c54502384e267e1\">relax the policy<\/a><\/span>  as domestic manufactures sought <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tariffs-automakers-factories-relief-25a400c98e02c01c8c54502384e267e1\">relief<\/a><\/span>  from the threat of rising production costs. <\/p>\n<p>On his tour in the Detroit area, Trump suggested the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a major trade agreement he negotiated in his first term, was irrelevant, although he provided few other details The UMCA is <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-exemption-969a4cfb03638ce9d6c0ffad2b98b4b1\">up for review this year<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n<p>Whitmer defended the trade agreement in her speech. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When we fight our neighbors, however, China wins,&rdquo; she said. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-tariff-speech-detroit-fc06ef9c7f0918b94d3ef42cbc604e16\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] DETROIT (AP) &mdash; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered a contrasting view of manufacturing in Detroit Thursday, two days after President Donald Trump defended his tariff strategy in the Motor City. Whitmer, a term-limited Democrat who is in her last year as governor, said in a speech at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}