MILFORD, Mich. (AP) — Flying to a rally at General Motors this week, President Donald Trump declared that “car companies are doing better than they’ve ever done” thanks to his tariffs. “All because of Trump,” he said. It was a message the president repeated while touring a collection of new vehicles, predicting that “it’s amazing what tariffs will do for General Motors” before autographing a white Corvette commemorating America’s 250th anniversary. He later told a crowd of cheering supporters that “Michigan is thriving.”That’s not exactly true, at least according to many metrics. Tariffs have cost businesses in Michigan and across the country billions of dollars while helping to stoke inflation that has continued to run hot — despite Trump’s assurances that his business background would wipe it out. Many Americans believe tariffs have pushed prices higher and the war in Iran has also increased gasoline prices, hurting consumer confidence in the economy while keeping Trump’s approval ratings low.
There are few places where contradictions between the president’s boasts and the economic reality of his tariffs are more likely to collide ahead of November’s midterm elections than in battleground Michigan, which holds its primary on Tuesday. Trump won the state in 2016 and then again in 2024, after it had flipped to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. During his rally in Milford, northwest of Detroit, the crowd was adoring. But even some of Trump’s ardent supporters said prices are too high and tariffs had caused short-term economic pain — even as they still support the president overall.
