Proposed tariffs by President Donald Trump will help revitalize Michigan’s auto industry, House Speaker Rep. Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said.

“President Trump’s tariffs are, without question, going to revitalize our storied auto industry in Michigan,” Hall commented on a post to X. “Michigan auto workers and I are grateful to have him in the Oval Office — an auto manufacturing renaissance is upon us!”

Hall responded to a Trump post on Truth Social about a Wall Street Journal editorial on tariffs, titled “Trump’s Tariffs Will Punish Michigan.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“I don’t understand The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, never have. They come to my aid when I least expect it, sometimes strongly, and I greatly appreciate that — Very meaningful!” Trump said in his post. “But then they come out with some real CLINKERS, like today’s Editorial that my Auto Tariffs will hurt the Michigan Automobile Business. They are sooo WRONG, in fact, it is just the opposite.”

The 47th president argues that the tariffs will drive “massive amounts of auto manufacturing” to the Wolverine State, noting that he won the state in last year’s presidential election.

“They have already stopped numerous new auto plants from being built in other countries, a GIGANTIC WIN (already!),” Trump added. “FOR MICHIGAN, and the United States as a whole. Just let it all happen, and watch, it won’t be even close! AMERICAN industry will thrive, and we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Mexico exports roughly $136 billion of vehicles and parts to auto-manufacturing states, including $53.8 billion to Michigan. Meanwhile, the newspaper reported that Canada exports $50.4 billion in vehicles and parts, including $22.1 billion to Michigan.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“To all the people claiming Trump’s tariffs will raise the price of automobiles in the United States, have you been car shopping lately?” Brigitte Gabriel, founder and chairman of ACT For America, noted in a post to X. “It’s already out of control. Building cars in the US is a good thing!”

In a news release last week, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she had heard from more than 3,000 Michiganders who are “concerned about how tariffs could hurt small business growth, threaten good-paying auto and manufacturing jobs up and down the supply chain, and jack up costs for families on groceries and gas.”

While critics have seized the tariff talk to fearmonger and offer a spate of worst-case scenarios, at this point, Trump has talked more about tariffs than he has imposed them.

He announced several tariffs, including 25% additional tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports. However, he paused the tariffs on Canada and Mexico but promised that they would take effect.

Additionally, Trump ordered the federal government to explore a possible tariff on copper and vowed to impose a 25% tariff on the European Union.

The president also threatened to levy a 25% tariff on Colombia after the country refused to accept deportees who were in the United States illegally. However, Trump dropped the threat after Colombia changed its position.

“I’m sorry but the ‘experts’ are just wrong about tariffs,” Batya Ungar-Sargon, a columnist at The Free Press said in a post to X. “They aren’t inflationary. You know how I know? Because I was alive in 2019! RINOs hate them because they don’t make billionaires rich and Democrats hate them because they make Trump [look] like the populist genius he is.”

Trump is likely using tariffs as a bargaining chip to gain an advantage over those he is negotiating with.

“The potential for such sizable economic impacts ought to act as enough of a deterrent that Trump will not end up implementing these higher tariffs,” the Associated Press quoted Matthew Martin, senior U.S. economist at the consultancy Oxford Economics, as saying last month.