Trump unveils new trade, tax deduction plans in meandering Detroit speech

In a winding speech that lasted almost two hours before the Detroit Economic Club, former President Donald Trump said he wants to make interest on auto loans fully tax deductible.

"That's going to revolutionize your industry," Trump said. "This will stimulate massive domestic auto production and make car ownership dramatically more affordable for millions and millions of working American families."

Trump also said he would double the deduction businesses can claim for purchases like equipment, vehicles and software and that he would renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

"This will be great for small businesses and great for Ford and General Motors," Trump said. "It'll be great for them, and we'll sell cars and trucks and work vans like never before."

Trump also repeated his plan to cut corporate tax rates to 15% for companies that make their products in America and slap tariffs on products from countries that don't offer reciprocal trade with the U.S. He mentioned tariffs repeatedly throughout the speech.

The suit-clad crowd of about 1,000 people at the MotorCity Casino's Sound Board welcomed Trump with strong applause as he walked on stage to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A."

It was an unusual event for the Detroit Economic Club, which typically has more staid ? and much shorter ? speaking engagements. Instead, this time, Trump was allowed to speak for more than twice the length of the scheduled 45-minute-long running time and his speech, his entrance and the music made it seem more like a campaign rally than an economic address to a group.

A spokesman for the club, Matt Friedman, confirmed that events typically last no more than 55 minutes and the music was requested by the Trump campaign.

Trump seemed to bask in the welcome, waiting until the song ended before stepping up to the microphone and beginning to speak. The former president, who at age 78 is the oldest person to ever run for president, rambled through many digressions throughout the speech, repeating himself on several points at various times and making false claims.

As the speech went on, some guests began to trickle out after about an hour and 15 minutes. A larger group left as a question and answer session began at the end of the speech.

Madeline Willard, 82, a retired small business owner gave the speech rave reviews, despite its length.

"It did go long but he's entertaining, he's funny, he's smart," she said. "He's what America needs, frankly."

The speech included Trump's trademark jabs at opponents.

He called Vice President Kamala Harris "a giant tax hiker" and "dumber than hell." He called UAW President Shawn Fain stupid.

He labeled the North American Free Trade Agreement "a disaster" and said the "60 Minutes" interview of Harris was probably "the single biggest scandal in broadcast history," claiming the network conspired with the Democratic Party to make Harris look good.

He also made a remark that was critical of Detroit, saying if Harris won, the whole country would look like the city.

Marianne Zander, 75, of Brighton, owns several industrial parks and is a self-described "big Trump supporter."

"I think it's fantastic," she said of Trump's proposed tax deduction changes. "Equipment for businesses is very important to me. So I think it's a great opportunity to regenerate money in Detroit and particularly stimulate Detroit auto business that we desperately need."

Before Trump spoke, UAW President Shawn Fain and Gene Sperling, an adviser to President Joe Biden and the Harris-Walz campaign, held a news conference in which they criticized Trump’s economic record, saying he did little to help the auto industry when he was president from 2017-21.

“The reality is Donald Trump didn’t bring back squat,” said Fain, recalling that General Motors’ Warren powertrain plant and assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, were among the facilities that were closed while Trump was president. “He let those plants shutter. People lost their livelihoods as he did nothing.”

Fain also blasted Trump’s vice presidential running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, for not committing to support, if elected, $500 million already promised to GM to electrify its Lansing Grand River facility, calling the grant “table scraps.”

Sperling noted — correctly — that investment in auto plants and employment in the auto industry has been up significantly under Biden’s tenure, compared with Trump’s, especially in Michigan where auto jobs were down somewhat even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump said he would bolster the industry in earlier campaigns but Sperling dismissed that as a “record of bluster and false promises.”

More: Trump says, in Detroit, the 'whole country is going to be like' Detroit if Harris wins

Sam Quisenberry, 56, of Allen Park, owns a State Farm Insurance agency. He said he's a fiscal conservative who leans Republican but has not yet decided how he'll vote. He attended the event partly out of curiosity. He'd never seen a president or former president in person but he was hoping to hear some substance related to the national debt, which is approaching $36 trillion.

He likened the debt problem to an old "Road Runner" cartoon, where Wile E. Coyote is in a shop building a bomb and the Road Runner pushes the shop onto a train track as a train bears down.

"Wile E. Coyote looks out the window and the train's coming at him, and he pulls the blind down," he said. "That's what our political leaders are doing. They're pulling the blind and it's going to be fiscal Armageddon if we don't address it."

He said afterward that he liked the speech. He compared Trump to a wise uncle he had who "knew things." As a small business owner, he likes the idea of tax breaks, but the fiscal conservative in him still had questions.

"When you're talking about tax cuts and we're talking about bringing in less money, I wonder how we're going to pay for it," he said. "We can't afford what we have now. Government's too big."

Curtis Lyons, 51, of Detroit, runs his own financial advisory business. He said he has already decided he will vote for Harris, but he wanted to hear Trump speak.

"I'm here to be entertained, because I'm assuming he'll give us entertainment," Lyons said.

Lansing Bureau Chief Paul Egan contributed to this report.

(This story was updated to add new information and correct a typo.)

Contact John Wisely: [email protected]. On X @jwisely.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Donald Trump unveils new trade, tax deduction plans in Detroit speech