Trump touts trade deals, stock market amid impeachment vote
President Trump touted the state of the economy and the USMCA trade deal at a campaign rally in Michigan as lawmakers in Washington voted to impeach him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress Wednesday night.
“It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached,” Trump told the crowd in Battle Creek, Michigan. “The country is doing better than ever before. We did nothing wrong.”
The president called NAFTA — which he is working to replace with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA — “the worst trade deal ever” and said his trade policies already had automakers “expanding and thriving” in Michigan and other states.
“If we didn’t have a deal, you know what I would have done? I would have put tariffs on [Mexico and Canada] and that would have been it,” Trump said.
FORD TO ADD 3,000 JOBS IN DETROIT AREA, INVEST $1.45B
Ford Motor Co. announced Tuesday it was making a $1.45 billion investment in two Detroit-area factories. The company said it would add about 3,000 jobs at the facilities as part of the investment.
“We’re doing so well in Michigan now with the auto companies,” Trump said. “You’re back. I’m very proud of you.”
The president also called the latest jobs report — 266,000 jobs added in November — an “extraordinary jobs boom.” He said it showed that talk of a possible recession a few months ago was just wishful thinking from people who would do “anything to get rid of us.”
US JOBS GROWTH ROARS BACK IN NOVEMBER WITH 266,000 ADDED
“For the last couple of weeks, we’ve set brand new records in the history of the various stock markets,” Trump said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all set records Monday.
“I have the greatest economy in the history of this country, and nobody talks about it,” the president said.
Trump was making the speech as the Democratic-majority House of Representatives voted 230-197 to impeach him on the abuse of power charge for leveraging his power to press Ukrainian leaders to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and voted 229-198 to impeach him on the obstruction of Congress charge for banning White House officials from cooperating with the Congressional investigation.
President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at Kellogg Arena, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, in Battle Creek, Mich. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
HOUSE VOTES ON ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP
In Michigan, the president boasted that no Republicans voted in favor of impeachment and he lamented “the crap that we’re going through.”
“After three years of witch hunts, hoaxes, scams, the house democrats are trying to nullify the votes of millions of patriots,” Trump said.