DETROIT – In response to the Trump Administration's tariffs aimed at reshoring American manufacturing, Stellantis this fall announced $13 billion in new investment in U.S. operations. Spread across Midwest plants in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, the investment – the largest in company history - is estimated to create over 5,000 jobs across all four of the transatlantic manufacturer's American brands (Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler) plus an additional 20,000 jobs at Stellantis suppliers.
"I'm extremely ecstatic about it. Without these tariffs, this probably wouldn't have happened," said Eric Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 140 representing workers at Michigan's Warren Truck, which stands to gain two new vehicles, hundreds of jobs, and $100 million in retooling after suffering significant layoffs last year.
The Administration's dubious use of a trade deficit emergency to swiftly implement tariffs on international trade is facing strong legal headwinds. But on the political front, tariff policy is emblematic of the dramatic shift in working-class support to the Republican Party in America's heartland. While the national Democratic Party has veered far to the climate left to embrace Communist China's socialist industrial policy, President Donald Trump has adopted the protectionist industrial policy of 1980s Rust Belt Democrats like John Dingell (D-MI) and Dick Gephardt (D-MO), with Midwest Democrats scrambling to get on board.
Whatever the legal fate of Trump's International Emergency Economic Powers Act, manufacturing protectionism has emerged as a bipartisan issue in a divided country.
Frequent Trump critic and Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker hailed Stellantis' plan that will jump-start Illinois' idle Belvidere assembly with Jeep production. The investment, said Pritzker, will "anchor long-term economic growth, support local communities, and provide opportunities for workers and families who have historically been left behind."
Echoed Michigan Democratic Senator Gary Peters: "(The Stellantis commitment) is a welcome investment in Michigan autoworkers and the future of our auto industry."
"We win by putting American workers first," said Michigan Republican Congressman John James.
Said Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, whose state will benefit from $400 million in new Ram truck investment in Toledo, creating 900 jobs: the announcement would "never have been possible without President Trump's America First tariffs."
Most significantly, Stellantis' commitment – along with General Motors' moving of $4 billion in vehicle production back to the U.S. from Mexico and Toyota's commitment to $10 billion in U.S. manufacturing – backs up Trump's 2024 campaign promise to working-class voters in key battleground states.
Voters like Charlotte Hayden, a 27-year employee at Ford's Kentucky Truck plant, who told The Detroit News: "As a consumer, I'm worried about tariffs but not as an autoworker. It employs a lot of people. That's important."
Blue-collar voters enthusiastically backed a Republican president whose words have echoed those of 1980s Midwest Democratic leaders who compelled the Reagan Administration to impose import quotas on Japanese automakers – hurdles that led foreign automakers, including Toyota, Honda, and Subaru, to locate production stateside.
Meanwhile, Democratic leadership in the 21st century shifted to green, coastal states. Working-class voters recoiled as a climate crisis-obsessed Biden Administration copied China's EV central planning.
"I actually went to China to see what they were doing," Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at a 2024 conference in Washington, D.C. "To see. . . what their industrial strategy was like to bring jobs there, particularly in the energy sector."
Granholm recounted how her conversations with Chinese officials inspired the Biden Administration "to get a national industrial strategy for clean energy." Reckless federal EV mandates (greased with federal Inflation Reduction Act subsidies) followed.
"EVs were probably the number #1 issue to autoworkers in Michigan," said Autoworkers for Trump founder Brian Pannebecker, who introduced (along with other auto workers) Trump in the Rose Garden on "Liberation Day."
"If EV mandates were allowed to go forward, it would be the end of the domestic auto industry. Over 50 percent of all EV batteries are made in China, and they control rare earth minerals that go into those batteries."
The Biden Administration's socialism died on dealer lots.
EV sales hit a wall last year at about 8 percent market share. High-profile electrics like the Dodge Charger Daytona and Ford Lightning struggled, while other models were canceled altogether. GM laid off over 3,400 workers at its EV facilities this fall. According to a Detroit News analysis, over $28 billion in taxpayer-fed battery plant subsidies are at risk.
Most of Stellantis' $13 billion investment is focused on gas-powered vehicles, leaning into U.S. strength as the world's largest oil producer.
"A year ago, Stellantis was on a fast track to moving their U.S. operations out of the country," said UAW President Shawn Fain. "Their decision. . . proves that targeted auto tariffs can, in fact, bring back thousands of good union jobs."
Trump's declaration of a national emergency over trade deficits invites copycat Democratic abuses of executive power, like, for example, declaring a national climate crisis emergency to mandate EVs.
But even if the Administration's emergency act is struck down by the courts, bipartisan tariffs to encourage U.S. manufacturing of everything from autos to computer chips are likely here to stay.
"It's not as if there's going to be a lot of demand for our vehicles in other countries," said Pannebecker, who estimates 60 percent of autoworker votes went to Trump. "The main effort here is to get U.S. auto companies to bring their production facilities back, the ones they've moved to Mexico and elsewhere."
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News, 910AM-Detroit reporter, and cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndicate. Find him at hPayne13hp@gmail.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne
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