'Single-biggest threat to our local economy': GOP mayor fears 'devastating' Trump plan
Source: Raw Story
February 23, 2025 1:22PM ET
A Republican mayor who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and 2024 is hitting the panic button over fears that his community's economy will collapse if the president follows through on his tariff threats. In an interview with the Washington Post, Michael Taylor, mayor of Sterling Heights since 2015, lamented that tariffs may be coming and that his community can't deal with possible change is "coming at a breakneck speed" since Trump took office.
As the Post's Cleve R. Wootson Jr. wrote, Sterling Heights, just north of Detroit, is an "auto-industry-dominated city" that could see massive numbers of jobs lost if the president makes good on his threats to Canada and Mexico. According to Mayor Taylor, "We’re still scrambling to figure out what it all means," before adding, "If those tariffs go into effect as promised, it would be devastating," and labeling it as potentially, “the single-biggest threat to our local economy.”
According to the Post, "If Trump’s tariff threats materialize, this region of the country dominated by the domestic auto industry stands to take as big a hit as anywhere," with Wootson writing, "Billions of dollars in goods crisscross between Canada and the United States from points in Michigan, and economists and industry analysts warn that tariffs or, worse, an escalating trade war could kneecap the economy ofa region already battered by globalization and foreign competition."
Matt Ross, a finance professor at Western Michigan University, claimed there is good reason to fear a trade war over tariffs. “It’s really hard to know how this will move through the economy,” he explained. "For a state that imports a lot to have a potential trade war on the horizon with its two closest partners … residents of Michigan should actually be perhaps a little bit terrified.”
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-tariffs-auto-industry/
= new reply since forum marked as read
The current WaPo article that Raw Story is apparently referencing is this, which would have been one to cite that would need to be clarified in their article - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/23/michigan-trump-tariffs-trade-auto-industry/
February 23, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EST
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Michael Taylor, the mayor of this auto-industry-dominated city north of Detroit, has had more conversations than he can count with nervous neighbors and alarmed industry leaders about President Donald Trump’s tariff plans, which Taylor sees as “the single-biggest threat to our local economy.”
“We’re still scrambling to figure out what it all means, and it’s coming at a breakneck speed,” said Taylor, a lifelong Republican who voted against Trump in 2020 and 2024. “If those tariffs go into effect as promised, it would be devastating.”
But James Benson, whose job at the Stellantis plant in Sterling Heights is his eighth auto industry job in 25 years, sees the tariffs as a chance to level the global playing field for him and other workers who’ve seen a parade of politicians unable to stop decades of contraction. A Trump supporter since 2020, Benson said he’s willing to endure short-term turmoil for a president he believes can stanch a steady drip of job losses.
(snip)
The bigger problem are the idiots there (noted in the last paragraph cited above) who basically say "beat me more please" all because of their belief in a fictional universe that has been presented to them. Parasitic people like this cause so much damage to our society because they embrace cults rather than reality. The "decades of contraction" STARTED with the policies of RAYGUN - who THEY most likely voted for - who pushed to "outsource" and "offshore" to drive down labor costs, and maximize profits.
What happened, Mike? Red don didn't get any saner between 2020 and 2024.
So, please clarify... the unsatisfactory leadership, the poor moral character, the divisive incompetence and the country going in the wrong direction....
Suddenly all that was preferable to having a woman President???
What the hell, man!
