Former U.S. Rep Mike Rogers (R-MI), the Trump-endorsed Republican Senate candidate for Michigan, told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are “absolutely” already having real results as manufacturing opportunities are returning to the Wolverine State.
Rogers joined Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle for the nearly 30-minute interview Saturday morning, in which the Senate hopeful highlighted key investments coming into Michigan and the United States that benefit both big and small manufacturers, thanks to Trump’s tariff and trade policies.
Rogers keyed in on General Motors’ commitment to invest $4 billion in the United States, part of which will go to a facility in Michigan. He emphasized that it is “huge” that GM is bringing production back to Michigan.
“And by the way, when that happens, all these small, little manufacturers get more work. This is really good for a state like Michigan,” he said.
He then said that home appliance company Whirlpool is also bringing manufacturing back to America, while noting that America is beginning to gain access to overseas markets, which the U.S. had been previously shut out of due to tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers other nations put on the U.S.
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“Whirlpool announcing it’s coming back to the United States. Whirlpool, great American product, or it used to be. Guess what? Coming back to the United States. Trade deals that allow the United States to be competitive and sell stuff overseas, which they tend to protect overseas. So all of those things are starting to have an impact,” Rogers said.
He recalled speaking with one Michigan man who is getting put on a second shift for the first time in 25 years, “because he’s getting more work because the auto companies are trying to source it here in the United States.”
“This is exactly what should be happening, and this is so good for a state like Michigan,” he added.
Rogers, who said Michiganders are “absolutely” seeing results now from Trump’s policies, further noted that the man he spoke with, who is a metal fabricator, attributed the uptick in work to Trump’s tariffs.
“Matter of fact, the guy that’s putting on the second shift is a metal fabricator,” Rogers recounted. “I said, ‘Well, what do you attribute that to?’ And he said, ‘Oh, it’s tariffs completely.’ He said, ‘Once that was all announced, the automobile companies were calling me saying, Hey, we love your product. We were going to source this in China, but we would like to–can you do the work, because it will now be cheaper to build it in the United States?’ I mean, this is exactly what you want.”
He spoke with another gentleman in the northern part of the state who said opportunities for increased shifts are returning, after a shortage of shifts during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“He said they were doing three shifts right up during the first Trump term. When Biden got in and started spending all that money and doing all the regulatory nonsense, he said they were down to one shift,” Rogers noted. “He said in the last two weeks…that the amount of activity requesting orders has just shot through the roof. And so it’s having a real impact, because these car companies, these bigger manufacturers, are going to have to source things in the United States. That’s good for Michigan families, for sure, it’s good for — I think it’s good for all American families.”
Boyle and Rogers also discussed some particulars of manufacturing American-made cars for European roads, which comes on the heels of Trump’s historic trade deal with the European Union, which includes member countries opening up their markets for U.S. access. Boyle, who was in Scotland last weekend to interview Trump at his golf course in Turnberry, noted he did not see a single American car during his trip, adding that the U.S. needs to begin exporting into the European market.
“I could not be more with you, which, by the way, is why President Trump has been looking for more equitable trade deals,” Rogers said in response to Boyle. “They have barriers that make it too expensive to sell an American car in places like the UK, or Germany, or France, which is why, when you go to those places, good luck finding an American car. You know, there’s a lot of Japanese cars there too.”
“And so when you look at the unbalance, and you see what President Trump is doing, I know the … left Coasts are both going apoplectic, but I’ll tell you, for people who build things like a state like Michigan, finding that equity is important because there should be a fair market for an American automobile to be sold in the UK,” he added.
He said that some in the auto industry have told him moving the steering wheel and gas pedals to the right side of the vehicle “is not as complicated as you think.”
“They just kind of reverse the schematics when they move all the gas pedals and everything else to the other side of the car. So it’s absolutely, absolutely doable,” he said.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
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