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US Automakers Have Used More Aggressive Language Than Trump To Describe China’s Aspirations

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Robert McGreevy Contributor
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U.S. automakers have used far more inflammatory and extreme language than former President Trump’s “bloodbath” comments to describe the threat China poses to their industry.

Liberal media decried Trump’s use of the word “bloodbath” while he described the potential state of the U.S. auto industry if he doesn’t win the 2024 election at a Saturday rally in Vandalia, Ohio, casting his comments as authoritarian and extremist.

Trump warned China that he would impose a 100 percent tariff — up from the current 27.5 percent tariff currently in place on Chinese-made EVs — if they tried to import cars they manufacture in Mexico using non-American labor to the U.S. He then claimed, in the context of that threat, that there would be a “bloodbath” if he wasn’t elected. (RELATED: Biden Looks To Tariffs To Bolster Struggling Electric Vehicle Market)

“We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected,” Trump said at the rally. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

Leftists across the media landscape cried foul, with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough leading the charge. Scarborough tweeted, then deleted, a scathing rebuke of Trump’s remarks alongside a video of the January 6th riots.

“Donald Trump’s America. And he’s proud of it. Promised another ‘bloodbath’ if he loses again,” Scarbourough tweeted Saturday night.

The Alliance For American Manufacturing, meanwhile, described China’s cheap labor production in a way that makes bloodbath sound polite.

“The introduction of cheap Chinese autos — which are so inexpensive because they are backed with the power and funding of the Chinese government — to the American market could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector,” the Alliance said in a February report.


The United Auto Workers, whose President Shawn Fain recently endorsed Joe Biden, also released a 44 page report in 2021 highlighting the danger the Chinese electric vehicle sector poses to the American automotive industry.

“China has developed an industrial policy that uses targeted, proactive policies to increase demand for EV batteries and channel that demand toward the purchase of domestic products,” the report claimed.

“China is leveraging its position as the world’s largest automotive market and leading the world’s largest automakers to orient their EV strategies toward China,” the report also warned.

Even the Big Three automakers themselves have been sounding the alarm. A top official at Ford called Chinese EVs a “colossal strategic threat,” according to Bloomberg.