Former president Donald Trump visited Michigan towns Warren and Walker Sept. 25. Jackson Casey | Collegian

College Republicans traveled to the former president’s town hall in a Detroit suburb

WARREN, Mich. — As former President Donald Trump spoke at a town hall at Macomb Community College Sept. 27, 13 Hillsdale College students joined thousands of attendees who said they were most concerned about American manufacturing and rising costs. 

Trump stressed the importance of American industries and doing more to export American products, even if that requires the United States to be less lenient with its allies.

“A lot of the time, our worst foes are our so-called friends. Our ‘friend,’ the European Union, takes tremendous advantage of us,” Trump said. “As an example, they give us cars by the millions. We don’t have too many Chevrolets in the middle of European cities.”

Sophomore Nikolas Nisidis, a Hillsdale student who went to the town hall with College Republicans, said he was pleased to hear Trump touch on economic issues, even though he said he wished the former president would more thoroughly describe his policy plans.

“As someone from Michigan who regularly sees abandoned and run-down auto factories, I was pleased to hear Trump speak in person about an issue that affects my home state,” Nisidis said. “However, I would have liked to hear him talk about specific ways he planned to stimulate growth of Michigan car manufacturing rather than his typical economic growth positions of higher tariffs, and tax and regulation cuts.”

With about a month to go until Election Day, the former president trails Vice President Kamala Harris in Michigan by about a point, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Trump attacked Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers labor union, for his willingness to work with President Joe Biden on automobile policies that would harm Trump’s vision for fair trade.

“Whoever this guy is, he sold you out because he let Biden — who doesn’t know what he’s doing — come up with an all-electric mandate,” Trump said. “Those cars are all going to be built in China. We want cars built in the USA. It’s very simple. We’ll be having auto manufacturing at levels that we haven’t seen in fifty years. We’re going to have a lot of companies coming in, and we’re going to make it competitive so they can come in and they can thrive.”

Kyle Strong of Madison Heights, a college-aged voter, said he sees the “Make America Great Again” movement as promising an economic comeback.

“The economy’s bad, and we’d like to own a house one day, have a family, and especially the American dream, and it seemed like that’s been out of touch recently, since the economy is bad,” Strong said. “It’s something that our parents did, our grandparents definitely could do, but we can’t do that anymore. That’s what ‘Make America Great Again’ means to me.”

Liam Twiss, a Gen-Z voter from Port Huron, voiced the same concerns about the economy before the town hall.

“Everything’s so expensive, and especially being so young — I’m not fully into a career yet, I’m not making the big bucks — everything’s so expensive, especially gas when that goes up,” Twiss said.

Twiss also shared his concern for the country’s immigration policy and said he hopes Trump will work to handle the crisis if elected.

“Another huge problem is the open border,” Twiss said. “There are so many people coming in who we just can’t support.”

Twiss said he sees foreign policy as another key issue, noting his disapproval with the current administration’s strategy.

“There’s a lot of war and tensions around the world right now,” Twiss said. “We’re probably closer right now than we ever have been, really, to a war.”

During the town hall, Trump’s remarks mostly dealt with issues mentioned by supporters like Strong and Twiss. He spoke at length about his economic policies, including plans to increase tariffs.

“We have to keep out the competition, and we’re going to make fair trade by charging them tariffs,” Trump said. “If they want to come in and steal our wealth, and steal our jobs, and steal our companies, then they have to pay a price for that.”

Jacob Ranlow, a student at Michigan State University from St. Clair Shores, said he was glad Trump focused on his economic policies during the town hall.

“I thought that a very important issue he touched on was the tariffs and clearing up a lot of sense in the news on his position on that,” Ranlow said. “Those will generate a lot of income and stimulate the economy in a great way that will put more money in the middle class man’s pocket.”

Twiss said he expects many Gen-Z voters to shift their support toward the former president as they enter the workforce and deal with economic issues firsthand.

“I think it’ll be a reality shock for many of them,” Twiss said. “A lot of these kids entering the workforce that haven’t really worked their whole life, they’re in for a big reality shock, learning how the world works and that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows like everyone thinks it is.”

Twiss said it’s important for voters to research the candidates before making a decision.

“I think most of them are smart enough to figure out who to vote for, make their own decisions and do their own research,” Twiss said. “That’s a big problem, too — a lot of people don’t do independent research and figure out who’s actually telling the truth versus which sites are just telling lies or their own side of the story.”

Ranlow said even though he is confident in Trump’s chances, the former president’s supporters should still be wary of their opponent.

“I am a Trump supporter, and it is ‘Too Big to Rig’ as they said, but you never know,” he said. “We were confident last election as well, so we’ve got to be smart with our predictions.”

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