Ford CEO says Trump’s cuts to infrastructure spending will lead to Michigan layoffs
President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are working to eliminate investments in clean energy vehicles and battery technology.
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are taking aim at the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and its infrastructure investments, including funds to boost the manufacture of electric vehicle and battery technology. One of Michigan’s top employers is warning job losses may be coming as a result.
“We’ve already sunk capital — even though we’ve rationalized it — in battery production and assembly plants all through Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee,” Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley said Feb. 11 at an industry conference, according to the Detroit News. “And many of those jobs will be at risk if the IRA is repealed.”
Ford is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, and is the third-largest employer in the state, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
The Inflation Reduction Act authorized tens of billions of dollars in grants and tax incentives to support a transition to electric vehicles. Although the law is still on the books, the Trump administration unilaterally halted the allocation of all of the funds as part of his executive order “to eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate’ and promote true consumer choice.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has promised to repeal what he termed “ridiculous E.V. mandates.”
According to Clean Jobs Midwest, about 34,000 Michiganders work in clean transportation jobs and tens of thousands more in other clean energy sectors.
Farley warned that Trump’s promised tariffs were also a huge economic threat, Axios reported. Farley said: “So far what we’re seeing is a lot of costs and a lot of chaos. … Let’s be real honest long-term: a 25% tariff across the Mexico and Canadian border will blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen.”
Axios also noted that Patrick L. Anderson, the CEO of the East Lansing-based economic consulting firm Anderson Economic Group, predicted Trump’s proposed steel and aluminum tariffs and tariffs on goods from Canada, China, and Mexico would be “a triple-whammy for the auto industry” and would hammer Michigan’s economy.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
