- President Donald Trump and Republican candidates rallied at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford
- Trump touted the economy, which he claimed has entered a ‘golden age’
- The event came ahead of a crucial midterm election where the economy and Trump’s record will be central issues
MILFORD — “Michigan is thriving” and “America is winning like never before,” President Donald Trump claimed Monday in a campaign-style rally at the General Motors Proving Ground in metro Detroit.
The president downplayed ongoing affordability concerns in the optimistic speech, which came with eight days to go before Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary election, and with absentee and early in-person voting already underway.
The state of the economy and Trump’s record are expected to be key issues in the midterm election.
“Ladies and gentlemen of Michigan, the golden age of America is upon us,” Trump said.
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Trump flew from Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C., to the Oakland County airport. He was joined on the flight by US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, along with US Reps. Lisa McClain and Tim Walberg of Michigan and other guests, according to pool reports.
At GM, Trump was greeted by CEO Mary Barra and company President Mark Reuss. He watched roughly seven minutes of drag racing at the facility, where GM tests vehicles, and pumped his fist when the racing ended.
“It’s amazing what tariffs will do for General Motors, and what the election has done,” Trump said during a tour with company executives, touting his controversial import taxes. “They’re doing great.”
One thing Trump didn’t mention during the address: The Gordie Howe International Bridge, which opened to traffic Monday after the president initiated weeks of stop-and-start negotiations with Canada, delaying the bridge’s ribbon-cutting.
While Monday’s Michigan visit was organized by the White House, it functioned as a campaign rally and featured speeches by several Republican candidates, including US Senate hopeful Mike Rogers and US Rep. John James, who Trump has endorsed to be the state’s next governor.
“Michigan now has a choice in this election: freedom or socialism, nonsense or crazy, what works versus what doesn’t,” James said. “Here’s the bottom line: the people taking control of today’s Democrat Party hate their own president, and they don’t like America.”
We checked their facts.
Auto industry ‘is back’
The claim: “I’m proud to say that the auto industry is back, and America is back, and it’s pulling Detroit and Michigan along with it,” Trump said.
The facts: Ahead of Trump’s speech, the administration highlighted planned industry investments, including GM’s June 2025 announcement that it will invest $4 billion to build more vehicles in the US. That was, in part, to avoid what the company expected would be a “$4 to $5 billion” impact from global tariffs that Trump had implemented.
Actual jobs numbers tell a different story, however. Michigan lost about 4,000 auto parts manufacturing jobs for the year ending in June, a 3.5% decline from the same month in 2025, according to the most recent data available from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those losses were only partially offset by the addition of an estimated 500 vehicle manufacturing jobs.
Prices and inflation
The claim: “We’ve brought down prices,” Trump said. “Last week, it was announced that inflation’s gone down faster than at any time in the last six years.”
The facts: The inflation claim is true, but it reflects only one month of change, according to Federal Reserve statistics. June’s nearly half point decline brought the annual inflation rate down to 3.5% but followed what had been a three-year high in May.
Most prices have not come down, as the president claimed. Federal data shows average prices for goods in the Detroit region were up about 4% year-over-year in June. In the broader Midwest region, food was up 3%, housing was up 3.3% and fuel was up 4.6%.
Trade deficit
The claim: In touting the impact of his global tariffs, Trump claimed the trade deficit was reduced by 71% worldwide under his presidency.
The facts: That claim uses selective metrics and doesn’t reflect current trade levels.
There are many ways to view the trade deficit, whether monthly totals or annual averages, but only one selective view represents a year-over-year decline as large as Trump touted.
Between March and October 2025, as tariffs roiled international trade, the deficit declined 71%, as Trump claimed. But those were historic peaks and valleys which have evened out. Trade data for May, the most recently available, shows the deficit was up nearly 14% over the same month in 2025.
Between the final year of Biden’s presidency and the first year of Trump’s second term, the trade deficit with China, specifically, declined about 47%, but that was accompanied by a nearly one-third decline in U.S. exports to China
Job protections
The claim: “According to a report released just last week, the great big beautiful bill saved more than 170,000 Michigan jobs,” Trump said Monday.
The facts: Trump is arguing tax cut extensions he signed in July 2025 saved jobs that could have otherwise been lost. It’s impossible to verify that claim, as it is a hypothetical.
The claim is consistent with recent projections from the National Association of Manufacturers, which had lobbied for passage of the Big Beautiful Bill and estimates it “protected” 170,000 Michigan jobs, along with $15 billion in related wages.
But one year after Trump signed the law, manufacturing jobs in Michigan have largely stagnated. Overall, the state lost about 7,000 manufacturing jobs for the year ending in June, a 1.2% decline, according to federal data.
Border crossings
The claim: Trump claimed, “Zero people have come through our border illegally” for 15 months in a row — which would stretch back to April 2025.
The facts: Illegal border crossings have plummeted under Trump, but they have not stopped completely. U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows nearly 103,000 southwest border land encounters in the 2026 fiscal year alone. In 2025, there were nearly 444,000 encounters with federal border officials along the US-Mexico border.
That is a substantial decline from Biden’s presidency. In 2024 the agency reported more than 2.1 million encounters.
Ford investment
The claim: In touting a manufacturing resurgence, Trump cited planned investments by several companies but did not provide relevant context.
Among them: “Ford is investing $3 billion to build parts of its new pickup truck in central Michigan,” the president said.
The facts: Trump was referencing Ford’s investment in the BlueOval Battery Park, which was announced before Trump returned to office. The company rolled out plans for the facility in February 2023 as part of a deal that sought to take advantage of tax credits under then-President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The company scaled back its plans somewhat in April of 2024.
As of June, Ford said 500 people were working at the facility, with plans for 800 workers by the end of the year.
GM’s big year
The claim: GM had “the best year they’ve ever had,” Trump said after he toured the GM Proving Ground with Barra and Reuss. “I won’t get into it, but there’s a reason. We’ve been very good to General Motors. The rest of the world doesn’t love me, but that’s OK. It’s called America first.”
It’s not immediately clear what metric Trump was referring to, but GM did not have its best year for either sales or profits in 2025.
The company reported about $2.7 billion in income last year, far shy of the $10 billion it reported as recently as 2023. Profits were depressed by retooling costs as the company moved away from prior investments in electric vehicles.
As for sales, GM sold 2.8 million vehicles in the US last year. That was tops among all automakers and a 6% increase over 2024 but shy of the 3 million vehicles the company routinely sold in the mid-2010s. Globally, the 6.18 million vehicles GM sold was well short of the 10 million it sold as recently as 2010.
The 2020 election
The claim: “Thank you, Mr. President, for coming back to Michigan, where you’ve won three times,” said James, the Republican gubernatorial hopeful.
The facts: Biden officially won Michigan by 154,188 votes in 2020. A Republican-led investigation found no evidence of widespread fraud. Asked by PBS in 2022 whether Biden had been duly elected, James was definitive: “Of course. Yes. That’s how the process works.” He has more recently claimed the election was rigged.
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