Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
January 13, 2026
The President. Hello, everybody. This is Bill Ford, and he's just expanded the plant and went to 24 hours—24-hour shifts. And Jim Farley, you know. Everybody knows Jim. He's a legend in the industry.
But they're just saying their business is better than ever. They did—they're doing 24 hours, Jim, now?
Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer James D. Farley. Yes. Six days a week.
The President. Around the clock. And they do expansions. And they're building more plants in the United States because of tariffs. And Jim said, and Bill very strongly confirmed, they've never seen anything like it. In all of the years that they've been in business, they've never seen what's happening now like it. So it's a great honor. But so, this plant—you might talk about it—this plant goes 24 hours, around the clock. Before it used to go 3 hours around the clock. [Laughter]
Ford Motor Co. Executive Chair William C. Ford, Jr. No, it will. So, we're adding a third shift, and it's going to be running, as the president said, 24 hours, 6 days a week. And that just shows the demand there is for this product, which we—is the best selling product, as you all know, in America. And it just gets hotter and hotter.
So we have a great relationship with the President and his whole staff. They've been great to work with for us. He personally is incredibly responsive every time we need something or call.
We very much appreciate it.
And we—you know, we couldn't be more excited. We're adding market share. We're growing as a company. We're adding jobs—not just here, but elsewhere. And yes, this is—times are good for us.
The President. And all of the U.S. automakers now are doing great, and before, they were having a really hard time. You couldn't—the environmentalists wouldn't—would not have let them survive.
Mexico-U.S. Trade/Canada-U.S. Trade
Q. So, Mr. President, when you renegotiate USMCA, how is that going to help autoworkers like Ford?
The President. I don't even think about USCMA. I mean, you know, I want to see Canada and Mexico do well. But the problem is, we don't need their product. You know, we don't need cars made in Canada. We don't need cars made in Mexico. We want to make them here, and that's what's happening. Everybody's moving here. From Canada, they're coming here. From Mexico, from Japan, from Germany, from all over the world, they're coming here, and they're opening up their plants.
Bill is lucky because he's had a lot here, but when he doesn't have it here, he's moving here.
They're doing big expansions—Ford. But they're all doing great. We're—the car industry is exciting.
And to be honest with you, Bill, every industry exciting.
Mr. Ford. Yes.
The President. Just like this.
Mr. Ford. Well, we need to rebuild our industrial base——
The President. Right.
Mr. Ford. ——and that's been a priority of yours.
Mr. Farley. And we're adding a combustion vehicle—a combustion truck, affordable one, in Tennessee, to the President's note. That's what these policies are doing for Ford. We're going to actually expand one of our existing plants and make a different kind of truck there.
Tariffs
Q. The tariffs did that for——
Mr. Farley. Yes.
Q. The tariffs——
Mr. Farley. Yes, and the EPA—the relief of the——
The President. Tariffs and the relief I gave them
Mr. Farley. Yes.
The President. ——from the most ridiculous standards, where you'd put three computers on a car in order to save about this much——
[At this point, the President gestured with his fingers to indicate a small amount.]
——gasoline from a glass. It was crazy.
But very proud of them. And Ford has really been a leader. They've done—great job. But all of them—General Motors is doing really well. Stellantis is doing really well. We're really happy about it. They—I just wanted to build their product in the U.S.A.
U.S. Trade Agreement With Mexico and Canada
Q. So do you—you don't think you're going to renegotiate USMCA?
The President. Well, I can. It expires very shortly. And we could have it or not. It wouldn't matter to me.
Q. Do you want——
The President. I think they want it. I don't really care about it.
Mexico-U.S. Trade/Canada-U.S. Trade/U.S. Automobile Industry
Q. So it might go away?
Q. Have you thought about getting rid of USMCA, then? Letting it sunset?
The President. No real advantage to us. It's irrelevant to me. Canada would love it. Canada wants it. They need it, because we don't need Canada product. That's the thing. You know, I want to be a nice person, but we don't need—I want to build the cars here, not in Canada.
We used to build the cars in Canada. Now the Canada cars—the Canadians are moving here to build cars. Same thing with Mexico. Same thing with Japan. Japan's paid us billions and billions of dollars for the privilege of making cars here and selling cars here.
Q. Mr. President, what about the raw materials——
U.S. Automobile Industry
Q. Mr. President, is there more auto manufacturing that you would like to see coming to the United States, or are you satisfied with the level where it's at right now?
The President. The quality is unbelievable. So we're at a Ford 150 plant. And I don't know that much about cars, but I know how to get people working. And all I can tell you is that people talk so much about the 150, and it has been for a long time. They make a great product, a quality product better than anybody else can make in Europe or in any other location.
Look, the Ford 150 has done well for a long time because they make a great product.
China-U.S. Trade/Domestic Manufacturing Investment/Tariffs
Q. Would you ever allow Chinese autos into the U.S.?
The President. Well, as you know, we have a tariff on Chinese autos. And in Europe, China is taking over the auto business—I would say, as a nice statement——
Mr. Ford. Yes.
The President. ——but that's the way it is. And here, what is it? A hundred percent?
Mr. Farley. Yes.
The President. We have a hundred-percent tariff on any car coming in from China, so that makes them able to do very nicely against China.
Q. So no?
Q. Mr. President, what about the——
The President. Right? Pretty good, right?
Q. So no?
The President. Who would've thought that was going to happen? Right?
Q. What about the raw materials?
The President. Everybody said that the cars are dead in the United States. If you go back four years ago, into the middle of the Biden administration, everybody was closing up their plants.
Now we have more plants being built in our country than at any time in history. They're—nobody has ever seen anything like it. And it's the election, November 5, and it's other things, but it's also—I think it may be the biggest part—the election, because I'm the tariff person.
Q. Mr. President, of the Big Three——
The President. And everybody now admits that I was right on tariffs. And I hope that we win the Supreme Court case.
Canada-U.S. Trade/Critical Minerals Supply Chain
Q. Mr. President, what about the raw materials coming in from countries like Canada? How do these companies deal with the fact that those raw materials are more expensive?
The President. Well, we get it, but we have a lot of our own raw materials. And you know, the word "raw" and "rare" are a little bit of a misnomer. They're not very rare. You have a lot of places that want to sell us material, and we get it from a lot of different countries, and we have a lot of rare earth and raw materials in this country.
Federal Reserve System
Q. Mr. President, Senator Thom Tillis says that the subpoena—the grand jury subpoena to the Federal Reserve Chairman was a little excessive. What do you think about that?
The President. Well, that's why Thom is not going to be a Senator any longer, I guess.
Right?
Q. But what do you think? Was it too——
The President. But I like Thom Tillis. He's a nice guy, but look, he's not going to be a senator any longer because of views like that.
Q. But was it too far?
The President. We have a bad Fed Chairman. He's bad in a lot of different ways, but he's bad because his interest rates were too high.
And today we had a great inflation report, and today we had a really great growth report. So, we have great growth and low inflation. And we're doing very well.
Chairman of the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors Jerome H. Powell
Q. But do you think there's going to be a rate cut, though? With the—inflation moves sideways——
The President. I don't know. With this guy, you don't know. He's got some problems.
But what he also did—he's building a small—he's renovating a small building. It's the most expensive construction job in history, and it's only a renovation. I could have done that job for
$25 million. They're spending billions and billions of dollars. He either doesn't know what he's doing, or it's worse than that. And you know what I mean by worse. So, hopefully, he'll be out of there soon.
Federal Reserve System Leadership
Q. Will the subpoena impact your timing on naming a Fed Chair at all?
The President. No.
Q. When do you expect to do that now?
The President. I don't know. Sometime in the next few weeks.
Q. Are you getting closer?
U.S. Automobile Industry/Tariffs
Q. Mr. President, of the Big Three, Ford makes most of its products right here in the United States.
Mr. Farley. Eighty percent.
Q. Eighty percent. Is that the reason——
The President. That's a big advantage for Ford.
Q. Is that the reason that you came here today?
The President. No. No, I came here because we're friends—the three of us—because I have helped the company a lot.
I mean, as an example, trucks. I put a 25-percent tariff on trucks coming into the United States, and their truck business went through the roof.
Iran/Political Demonstrations
Q. You said to Iran this morning that "help is on the way" for protesters. What did you mean by that? What kind of help?
The President. You're going to have to figure that one out. I'm sorry.
Government Suppression of Protests in Iran
Q. How many people have been killed in Iran?
The President. Nobody has been able to give me an accurate number. I have heard numbers from—everything is a lot. One is a lot. But I've heard numbers much lower, and I've heard numbers much higher. We'll be knowing—we're probably going to find out over the next 24 hours. I think it's a lot.
Q. What's the highest number you've heard?
The President. It's too many, whatever it is.
Oil Prices
Q. In your first term, the price of oil average around $53 a barrel. Is that the target for you for this term, to bring——
The President. I'd love to see that, yes. I mean, we're at $68—we're at $58 now. I'd like to see $53.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Situation in Iran/Safety of U.S. Citizens
Q. Have you advised—have you advised U.S. allies in Tehran to evacuate from Iran?
The President. I would say it's a good idea if U.S. people evacuated, yes.
Q. What about U.S. allies, like Europeans?
The President. I would say they could—it's not a bad idea if they got out.
Q. Have you asked them to?
The President. I think they should get out.
[The tour continued; no transcript was provided.] NOTE: The President spoke at 12:51 p.m.
Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn, MI, tour; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, Dearborn, MI.
Locations: Dearborn, MI.
Names: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Farley, James D.; Ford, William C., Jr.; Powell, Jerome H.; Tillis, Thomas R.
Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; Automobile industry, strengthening efforts; Canada, trade with U.S.; Carbon emissions, reduction efforts; China, trade with U.S.; Critical minerals, supply chain improvements; Federal Reserve System; Iran, political unrest and violence; Mexico, trade with U.S.; Michigan, Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn; Michigan, President's visit; Oil market and prices; Tariffs.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600019.