Washington, Jan 14 (IANS) President Donald Trump said the US economy was “rocketing” on the back of a manufacturing revival, defending his rollback of electric vehicle mandates and predicting that robotics would play a growing role in addressing labor shortages.
Speaking during an interview with CBS News at an active Ford assembly line, Trump pointed to expanded production across major automakers as evidence of economic strength.
“If you went around this plant, like I have, they just announced they’re going to 24 hours,” Trump said. “This is a Ford plant, but GM’s the same, Stellantis is the same.”
Trump said factories across the country were expanding and operating around the clock, describing the pace of growth as unprecedented.
“They’re enlarging every plant in this country,” he said. “We’re building more plants in the country than we’ve ever built.”
Addressing inflation concerns, Trump said economic conditions had improved sharply since he took office, though he acknowledged that some Americans still felt pressure from higher grocery prices.
“I inherited a mess,” he said. “I inherited a mess of crime. I inherited a mess of inflation.”
Trump said inflation levels had dropped to their lowest point in years and argued that job growth and stock market performance reflected broad economic health.
“Our growth numbers are through the roof,” he said. “Our job numbers are tremendous.”
The president also defended his decision to end federal mandates requiring consumers to shift rapidly to electric vehicles, saying Americans should have a choice.
“I want electric, and I want gasoline, and I want hybrids, I want everything,” Trump said. “Now people can have electric. They can have gasoline. They can have hybrid.”
When asked about the idling of an electric vehicle plant near the Ford facility, Trump said production was shifting back to gasoline vehicles, a move he framed as market-driven.
Trump acknowledged labor shortages in manufacturing, citing comments from Ford’s chief executive about thousands of unfilled mechanic jobs, but described the situation as a positive sign.
“That means it’s vibrant,” he said. “You could also have things where you have so many people and they can’t get jobs.”
He said companies were rapidly training workers and predicted automation would help fill gaps.
“I think that robotics are gonna be a big factor in the future,” Trump said. “This country won’t have enough people if we don’t have it.”
Trump also said layoffs in the federal workforce were helping push workers into higher-paying private sector jobs.
“Those workers are being trained to go into the private sector at a much higher salary,” he said.
Asked about the long-term future of jobs on factory floors, Trump said skilled workers would earn more, not less, as the economy expands.
“A skilled worker, a person with talent… they’re gonna make a lotta money,” he said.
–IANS
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