Brian Pannebecker, a retired auto worker and 25-year UAW member, wants everyone to understand what President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day means for Michigan.

“My entire life I have watched plant after plant after plant in Detroit and in the metro Detroit area close,” he said as the 47^th POTUS unveiled a slate of tariffs on Wednesday. “There are now plants sitting idle. There are now plants that are underutilized. And Donald Trump’s policies are going to bring product back into those underutilized plants.

“There’s going to be new investment. There’s going to be new plants built,” he continued with Trump at his side. “The UAW members – and I brought 20 of them with me, they’re sitting right over here – we support Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs 100%.”

While many pundits in the mainstream media fearmonger about a looming recession or economic calamities on the horizon, the UAW shares Trump’s prediction of jobs flooding back into the U.S. as the result of tariffs.

“In six months or a year we’re going to begin to see the benefits,” Pannebacker said. “I can’t wait to see what’s happening three or four years down the road.”

While Pannebacker and UAW President Shawn Fain campaigned on opposite sides of the presidential race in 2024 – Pannebacker for Trump, and UAW President Shawn Fain for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris – the two are now aligned in their support for Trump’s tariffs.

“We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades. Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions,” Fain said when Trump last week announced a 25% tariff on vehicles and auto parts imported into the U.S.

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The auto tariff, which Trump estimates will generate up to $1 trillion in revenue over the next two years, is aimed at pressuring car makers to produce vehicles in the U.S., which Trump argues will create jobs and opportunities for Americans, particularly in states like Michigan that fuel the auto industry.

“This will continue to spur growth like you haven’t seen before,” Trump said. “We’ll effectively be charging a 25% tariff. But if you build your car in the United States, there is no tariff.”

The proceeds from the tariffs, he said, “will be used to reduce debt greatly.”

“Basically, I view it as reducing taxes and reducing debt,” Trump said.

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The UAW suggests the tariffs will result in “thousands of good-paying blue collar auto jobs” flooding back to more than a dozen underutilized auto plans across multiple states. The economic impact “would be enormous and have a cascading effect throughout communities from Michigan to Tennessee,” according to a UAW statement.

The UAW specifically cites available capacity at numerous plants in Michigan, including Ford Flat Rock Assembly, Ford Michigan Assembly, GM Lansing Grand River, GM Factory Zero, Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly, Stellantis Sterling Heights Assembly, and Stellantis Jefferson North Assembly.

“At Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Warren, Michigan, for example, over 1,000 autoworkers are laid off while the plant sits underutilized and $100,000 Stellantis trucks are built in Mexico for $3 an hour,” the statement read. “These layoffs were announced less than six months ago and could be undone. Those jobs could be brought back to Michigan immediately with well-designed auto tariffs.”

Auto workers aren’t the only ones praising Trump’s tariffs.

Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, noted on X “auto production is the bedrock of a nation’s manufacturing ecosystem,” and the U.S. imports more vehicles than almost every other country in the world combined.

“We’ve seen it eroded in the US over the past four decades first by Asian imports then by NAFTA,” Paul posted. “A 25% tariff on auto imports isn’t the only way to spur more auto plants here, but is in my view necessary.”