Trump claims Biden wants 'everybody to be mandated electric car' in rambling debate demand
Former President Donald Trump Thursday demanded a presidential election debate in rambling video statement that saw him create new words, appear to blame auto workers for inflation and claim President Joe Biden wants "everybody to be mandated electric car."
What begins as a demand that the president commit to a debate quickly devolves into an anti-immigration rant, a dire warning to autoworkers, then a pivot back to Biden so fast it's not immediately clear whom Trump is addressing.
"I hope you're listening United Auto Workers because your union head is destroying you, they're all going to be made in China we're not going to have any jobs in Michigan unless I'm elected, and if I'm elected, you're going to have more auto jobs than you've have in 25 years," Trump states. "We're going to start building cars again in Michigan, and other states, but you're allowing also energy prices to skyrocket, our economy to crash and inflation to reach levels that we've never seen before."
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This whiplash transition from an address to United Auto Workers, who officially endorsed the president earlier this year, to an attack on Biden's economic policy ends with Trump using a word that does not exist.
"It's called the Biden inflation tax and it's a 50 percent tax you've imposted on people in just three short years," Trump says, in an apparent melding of the verb impose and the noun impost.
"Maybe you have a reason for this and you'll have a chance to talk about it, but let's get to the debate right now."
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Trump's rant on electric cars arrives amid a list of topics Trump claims he wants to debate and is equally difficult to follow.
"It's a shame what you're doing to the United States of America. You're destroying our beautiful, beautiful nation," Trump says. "The other thing I want to talk about is your policy of electric cars where you want everybody to be mandated electric car.
"Those cars don't go far, they're very expensive and they'll all be made in China," Trump says. "If I'm elected you'll have more auto jobs in Michigan."