A Chinese Car Built in America Is Still a Chinese Connected Car

PJ Media ^ | 09/12/2026 | David Manney

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President Donald Trump has a simple proposition for Chinese automakers: if they want American customers, build the factory here and hire American workers.

I understand the appeal.

Trump said Saturday that he would be comfortable with Chinese companies manufacturing cars in the United States as long as they employ Americans. He contrasted that with Chinese manufacturers building vehicles in Mexico and shipping them north across the border.

From Reuters:

"If China wanted to come in and open a plant to build their cars here, I'd be okay with that," Trump said in an interview on the Fox News program "The Ingraham Angle."

"Japan does it, but they hire our people. The big thing is they hire our people," he said.

He added that ⁠he does not want Chinese automakers to build cars in Mexico and ship them to the United States. "I'm not knocking Chinese cars," Trump said.

U.S. automakers have urged Trump, who is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington in two weeks, not to agree to allow Chinese automakers access to the U.S. market.

On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, said there were "rumors that Trump is planning to allow Chinese cars to be sold in America, as part of larger deal ‌he’s ⁠putting together. That would be a strategic mistake."

Trump called Slotkin's statement a "total phony rumor" and said he had kept Chinese vehicles out of the United States.

Factories and manufacturing jobs are important (duh!). American communities have spent decades watching plants close while production moved overseas. Trump made rebuilding domestic industry one of the defining goals of both of his presidencies.

Chinese connected vehicles create a separate problem, however, and putting the factory in Michigan or Ohio doesn't automatically solve it.

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TOPICS: China; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: car; china; manufacturing; spying