President Donald Trump spent the afternoon delivering lie after lie in Michigan, subjecting Michiganders and viewers across the nation to yet another delusional rant filled with falsehoods and deflections about his terrible economy. This visit was just another desperate effort by Trump to hide his record of failure: a blue-collar bust, slow job growth, stagnant wages, layoffs, high utility bills, rising grocery prices, soaring health care costs – the list goes on and on. The truth is, Trump and his GOP allies have spent the past year screwing working families, raising prices to benefit themselves and their powerful friends.
Here are the key facts about what’s actually happening in Trump’s terrible economy:
FACT: Trump Promised A Blue Collar Boom, The Opposite Has Happened
- Donald Trump promised a manufacturing and blue-collar jobs boom, but month after month, we’re losing blue-collar jobs. Factory jobs nationwide fell by 8,000 in December to the lowest level in four years, and there’s no end in sight with 10 straight months of contraction, 70,000 fewer jobs in the factory sector under Trump.
- Logistics, manufacturing, and supply-chain firms started 2026 with a fresh surge of layoffs, facility closures, and bankruptcy filings, impacting more than 2,200 workers nationwide already.
- Manufacturing jobs fell by 5,000 in November to the lowest level in almost four years. In Michigan alone, the manufacturing sector lost 9,200 jobs between August 2024 and August 2025.
FACT: Job Growth Has Slowed To A Trickle Under Trump, And Over A Million People Have Been Laid Off
- Layoff announcements have topped 1.1 million this year – the most since the last time Trump was in office during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The native-born unemployment rate has risen since Trump took office, and overall unemployment has risen to a four-year high of 4.6%.
- Wage growth has shrunk since Trump took office.
- Outside of the two most recent recessions, 2025 saw the lowest pace of average monthly job growth since 2003. People are spending longer looking for jobs and millions of Americans are involuntarily working part-time or scrambling to string together multiple gigs just to survive.
- Michigan still has the fifth-highest jobless rate in the nation.
FACT: Trump Said Today That “Inflation Is Defeated,” But Prices Are Still Soaring
- A year into Trump’s term grocery prices are still rising. The overall cost of groceries in December was up 2.4% from a year ago. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs all went up in price over the last 12 months, rising 3.9%. Coffee prices rose 20% in 2025, and beef and veal prices reached record highs in 2025, rising nearly 15%.
- Nearly 65% of Michiganders say their household costs have gone up in the past year – and an overwhelming 82.5% of those individuals say food and groceries are the budget category that is rising the most.
FACT: Health Care Costs Are Going Up For Americans Under Trump, And Millions Will Lose Their Care All Together
- Over 24 million Americans are seeing their health care premiums skyrocket an average of 21% this year. Premiums are increasing an average of:
- The Trump-GOP Big, Ugly Bill kicks nearly 15 million people off their health insurance and cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid. Nearly 500,000 people across Michigan will see their coverage costs soar 151% this year after the Trump-GOP budget ripped away critical tax credits that make ACA coverage affordable.
- Hundreds of thousands of Americans are dropping coverage after Republicans ended the health care tax credits to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations – and it’s only going to get worse. As many as 750,000 Michigan residents stand to lose their health care because of Trump and Republicans’ changes to Medicaid and the ACA.
- Across the country, over 600 health care facilities, including hospitals and clinics, are at risk of closing or reducing services, forcing more Americans to travel farther for maternity care and emergency rooms, and face longer wait times and higher costs.
FACT: The Auto Industry Has Laid Off Thousands Of Workers And Sales Are Slowing As Prices Soar
- During his speech, Trump suggested he would be open to Chinese automakers building factories in the U.S., telling Michiganders, “Let China come in,” even as top automakers have warned that American carmakers are struggling to compete with Chinese companies supported by massive state subsidies.
- The Michigan auto industry has laid off thousands of workers in the wake of Trump’s tariffs. General Motors announced just last week that 1,100 more workers at two Michigan plants are losing their jobs.
- U.S. auto sales are slowing, with annualized sales down more than 5% between Q3 and Q4 last year – and buying a new car is becoming something only the wealthy can afford.
- Car prices reached a record high in 2025, soaring past $50,000 for the first time. And thanks to Trump’s tariffs, the average price increase on 2026 models was nearly $2,000, compared to an only $400 uptick during last year’s model year changeover.
- Over 60% of Michigan voters say they believe Trump’s tariffs will continue to hurt the state’s auto industry.
- More than half of Michigan voters say they are paying more for car and home insurance.
FACT: Trump Promised Last Year That “Your Energy Bills Will Be Cut In Half” – Instead They’re Skyrocketing Up
- Energy bills have increased 13% since Trump took office and 68% of Michigan voters say they are paying more for utilities. Heating costs are expected to rise 9.2% this winter.
- Trump cancelled nearly $1 billion in Michigan energy investments last year, which could cause up to 7,500 of Michiganders employed in the clean energy industry to lose their jobs, and the average Michigan utility customer to see bills rise by an estimated $320 annually by 2035.
FACT: Donald Trump’s “Favorite Word” – Tariffs Are Devastating The Economy And Driving Up Costs For American Families
- Trump’s tariffs have cost the average American household nearly $1,200 since he took office.
- Prices have increased and American businesses are footing the bill for Trump’s tariffs.
- 72% of Michigan voters believe that Trump’s tariffs cause higher prices.
- Housing costs are at an all-time high and the Trump tariffs are doing nothing but driving up new home costs by tens of thousands of dollars. The Center for American Progress estimates that tariff-induced higher building costs will lead to 450,000 fewer homes being built over the next five years, exacerbating the housing supply shortage.
- Trump’s tariffs on building materials are expected to increase the price of a new home in Michigan by about $10,900.
- Trump’s tariffs have cost Michigan farmers more than $277 million in export revenue.
- The Trump-GOP Big Ugly Bill takes food assistance away from at least 3 million Americans and eliminates school meal access for more than 18 million kids.
FACT: “Acting President Of Venezuela” Donald Trump Wants To Spend Your Tax Dollars To Pay Off Oil Companies To Rebuild A Foreign Country
- Trump said “millions and millions” of barrels of oil are coming in to the US from Venezuela every day, but the reality is that the country is too unstable and “uninvestable” for oil companies to work there and Trump has hinted that the US government may “reimburse” oil companies for repairing Venezuela.
- Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is too dilapidated to support production exceeding the current rate of less than 1 million barrels per day without sinking tens of billions of dollars into upgrading production.
- Trump has declared himself Venezuela’s “Acting President” and said that we’re going to be occupying the country for years even as the State Department has urged Americans to leave the country immediately as armed militias set up roadblocks.
- An overwhelming majority of Americans – 72% – are worried that the U.S. will become too involved in Venezuela, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
FACT: It’s Not “Fake”: Americans Dislike Trump’s Cruel Immigration Policies And Most People Seized By ICE Have No Criminal Record
- Trump claimed today that protests against his cruel immigration policies are “fake” and a “scam,” but in the wake of an ICE officer murdering an unarmed woman in Minneapolis in cold blood last week, a majority of Americans now disapprove of how immigration enforcement officers are handling their jobs. 52% say ICE’s tactics are “too forceful.”
- There have been 13 instances of immigration agents firing at or into civilian vehicles since July, and more than 40 cases of immigration agents using banned chokeholds and other moves that can cut off breathing.
- More than a third of the roughly 220,000 people arrested by ICE officers in the first nine months of the Trump administration had no criminal histories. In the highest profile ICE operations in Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and across Massachusetts, more than half of those arrested had no criminal record.
- ICE held nearly 5,000 people in Michigan last year.
- A record share of Americans now consider immigration a “good thing” for the country and an AP-NORC nationwide poll conducted in early December found that Trump’s approval rating on immigration has hit its lowest point of 2025 — falling 11 points since March. Only 38% of Americans endorse Trump’s cruel and chaotic handling of immigration.
FACT: Americans Hate What Trump Has Done To The Economy
- Only 27% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance on cost-of-living issues according to the December Reuters/Ipsos poll.
- Less than a third of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to the latest AP-NORC poll.
- Just 36% of Americans approve of President Trump’s handling of the economy, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.
- 57% of Americans blame the current state of the U.S. economy on President Trump, according to the most recent Quinnipiac poll.
- Nearly half of Michiganders say Trump’s economic policies have made the economy weaker according to a Detroit News poll.