US President Donald Trump visited Ford’s Dearborn manufacturing plant on Tuesday, a visit highly anticipated as the focus shifted towards manufacturing jobs in America.
The President addressed the Detroit Economic Club and visited Ford’s factory in Dearborn, where the best-selling F-150 — for which Ford recently halted production of the electric version — is assembled.
During his speech, Trump referred to the 25% tariff on vehicles and auto parts imported as “one of the biggest reasons” for a successful economy, and that they were specifically helping Michigan.
“The Trump tariffs have delivered us trillions of dollars of new investment,” the President stated, highlighting “unprecedented new partnerships on new minerals, rare earths, defense and artificial intelligence and historical levels of foreign military sales.”
“I am standing up for the American autoworker like no president has stood up before,” Trump added.
Speaking with CBS earlier during his Ford factory visit, the President considered Ford’s hiring difficulties “a good thing.”
“That means it’s vibrant,” he stated. “And what’s going to happen is people are being trained rapidly, and you’re going to have a thing called robots.”
Ford x Carhartt
Hours before the President arrived in Detroit, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Ford would announce that it is hiring to ramp up production of the hybrid and internal combustion engine (ICE) versions of the F-150.
In late 2025, the company revealed plans to add 1,000 jobs to the Dearborn plant, aiming to increase output by over 50,000 units this year, as demand for gas-powered vehicles rose.
However, what Ford revealed later on Tuesday was a partnership with workwear company Carhartt.
Both companies told Business Insider they’re launching a “multi-year partnership” to address what both call a “looming workforce crisis.”
Fuel-Economy Standards “Reset”
Last month President Trump approved a “reset” of federal fuel‑economy standards by rolling back and weakening the stricter Biden‑era Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rules.
The change reduces required yearly mileage gains and lowers the long‑term fleet average targets so new cars and trucks don’t have to be as fuel‑efficient.
According to the Trump Administration, the move will lower new vehicle costs and “realign” the standards with real world market conditions.
The ceremony held at the Oval Office was attended by Detroit automakers’ representatives, including Ford’s CEO Jim Farley.
By then, Ford stated that “as America’s largest auto producer, we appreciate President Trump’s leadership in aligning fuel economy standards with market realities.”
Farley said in the Oval Office that Trump’s move will allow Ford to “invest in affordable vehicles made in the US.”
“We believe that people should be able to make a choice” between gas-powered, hybrid, and electric cars, Farley added, noting that the company will “invest more in affordable vehicles.”
A day later, speaking with Fox News, Farley reiterated the idea.
“As the President said, we will be able to offer more affordability in our popular models,” the chief executive noted.
Additionally, Ford “will be able to launch new vehicles, made in America, that are more affordable because of this rule change.”
EV Policy Changes
Last year, Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which proposed ending tax breaks for EVs and clean energy by year-end, was approved by the US House of Representatives and later reviewed by the Senate, which anticipated the deadline.
The end of the $7,500 EV tax credit on September 30 caused a rush of purchases in the third quarter, followed by a sharp drop in sales in the months afterward.
Ford’s EV sales surpassed 10,000 units in both August and September — levels the company hadn’t reached since December 2024 — before being slashed by half.
November sales plunged more than 60% year over year, and December sales dropped 57.6% to around 5,500 units.
Commenting on the post-credit situation on CNBC last month, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy rhetorically questioned whether it was his “job at DOT [Department of Transportation] or Donald Trump’s job to force GM or Ford to invest in EVs.”
“It’s their job to look at the market and global demands, and if they see global demands for EVs are real, they should make those investments,” Duffy said, “but let’s not force them to build cars that Americans don’t want to buy in this country.”
In mid-December, Ford announced a $19.5 million impairment caused by its pullback on electric vehicles.
By then, Farley said that “high-end” EVs “just weren’t selling,” and that the company would refocus on internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid models instead.
Tariffs
After Trump’s tariff announcement in early 2025, CEO Jim Farley told CNN in mid-April that Ford was working with GM and Stellantis to determine the best response for the policy change.
“We’re all trying to figure this out to do the right thing for the country and it’s going to take a little time. But we never left the U.S. I guess that’s my point. We just never left,” he added.
The brand’s domestic production stands at 77%, while 23% of vehicles and auto parts are mostly imported from Mexico and Canada, and other regions.
For production in North American countries, tariffs didn’t impose a threat, as the USMCA [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement] parts do not carry tariffs.
President Donald Trump signed in late April executive orders aimed at mitigating the impact of his auto tariffs for automakers, granting a two-year window on automakers for them to increase the share of domestically produced components for U.S.-made vehicles.
“We just wanted to help them,” Trump stated then. “If they can’t get parts, we didn’t want to penalize them.”
In a nod to the executive orders, Farley said last year that, while helping to ease the impact of tariffs on automakers, the industry needed to “continue to work closely with the [Trump] Administration on a comprehensive set of policies to support our shared vision of that healthy and growing auto industry,” and added, “we are not there yet.”
