MILFORD, Michigan — President Donald Trump will travel to Michigan on Monday to sell his economic agenda in this battleground state squeezed by tariffs as Republicans increasingly worry that frustration over rising prices driven by the war in Iran could shape this fall’s elections.
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Trump is scheduled to visit the General Motors Proving Ground, where he will watch a drag race and a vehicle demonstration. He’ll then tour the car manufacturer’s facilities and deliver a rally-style speech ahead of the Aug. 4 primary in a state that Trump narrowly won in 2024 but lost in 2020.
Trump has endorsed Rep. John James to be the Republican nominee for governor, but his opponent, businessman Perry Johnson, has continued to try to align himself with Trump and will even host a “Trump Tailgate” in Milford on Monday. Trump’s campaign team bashed Johnson as a “NEVER TRUMPER” who ran against Trump in 2024 and reiterated its support of James in a post on X.
The visit comes as Republican strategists and campaign officials increasingly expect economic frustrations to dominate voters’ thinking this fall, leaving candidates to navigate how closely to align themselves with a president whose endorsement remains valuable in the primary but could become more complicated in the general election.
Trump is making his case in one of the states where it may be hardest to sell. Michigan’s economy relies heavily on the automotive industry, whose global supply chains have been disrupted by the administration’s tariffs, and the state conducts tens of billions of dollars in trade with Canada. Trump last week announced that he plans to implement tariffs of 50 percent on goods from Canada.
Michigan’s unusually late primary gives Republican nominees only about three months to move from winning over Trump loyalists to persuading general-election voters, a transition made more difficult by economic concerns.
Jason Cabel Roe, a longtime Michigan campaign strategist working on Rep. Tom Barrett’s campaign in the state’s 7th Congressional District, said he expects the cost of living to be on voters’ minds. Candidates can make a compelling case that the temporary price hikes are in service of protecting the United States from Iran, he said.
“We are going to have to navigate a difficult time in terms of oil prices and the impact on the economy,” Roe said. “But removing one of the most hostile actors towards the United States of the last 50 years from the board is a pretty significant accomplishment.”
Despite low unemployment, continued GDP growth and resilient consumer spending, voter sentiment about the economy is low. Gas prices have surged again after fighting resumed in the Iran war, frustrating economists who saw inflation beginning to cool in June. Roe acknowledged the prices are a clear pain point.
“I’m a little nervous right now,” Roe said Friday, noting the election is roughly 100 days away.
New tariffs that replaced the administration’s old global tariff regime took effect last week, introducing a new tax for companies that could be passed on to consumers. Some political consultants expressed concern about the potential of Trump’s new tariffs to raise prices.
“Anything that would exacerbate inflation doesn’t make much political sense and should be a concern for any Republican on the ballot,” said Doug Heye, a longtime Republican operative and former top aide to then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia).
But GOP strategists in Michigan said candidates can point to the policy as an effort to protect U.S. workers from offshoring and the new tariff regime as a humanitarian effort to keep forced labor out of supply chains.
“I think people are happy that [Trump] is actually standing up for Michigan industries,” said Stu Sandler, a GOP consultant who is advising Mike Bouchard’s campaign to succeed Rep. John James in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District. “For too long, people neglected that and allowed the marketplace to treat them unfairly in the world.”
Trump plans to lean into that message in Michigan on Monday, telling voters about his efforts to bring manufacturing back to their state.
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“Under President Trump’s America First agenda, American automakers are investing, hiring, and expanding at a pace not seen in decades,” Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Democrats plan to lean into messaging about voters’ economic concerns during the president’s trip, said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel.
Voters “know Republicans have put a rubber stamp on Trump’s cost-raising agenda, and they’re ready to kick their asses out in November,” he said in a Monday news conference.
Republicans say they have plenty to run on: extended income tax cuts, new tax breaks for tips and overtime, and Trump accounts that will provide $1,000 in stocks to babies.
But Trump has frequently struggled to focus on those topics in speeches and public remarks, undermining the party’s economic message by calling affordability concerns a “hoax” and telling reporters that he likes inflation.
“The election for Republicans has to come down to: You may not like us, but those people are way worse,” said Brent Buchanan, the president and founder of the polling firm Cygnal.
Buchanan said Republicans’ best chance is to shift voters’ attention from the economy to a contrast on key issues with Democrats, whom Trump has increasingly portrayed as extreme. Trump is expected to make that argument in Michigan, where the contest for the Democratic Senate nomination between Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed has become a litmus test for the fight between the Democratic Party’s establishment and further-left wings.
El-Sayed has run on an anti-Israel platform, supporting Medicare-for-all, heavily taxing billionaires and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Members of his own party have expressed anxiety that his positions could be a disadvantage in the general election, where the Democratic nominee will take on Republican Mike Rogers.
“The toxicity of the Democratic brand should be motivating,” said Roe, the Michigan strategist.
Still, Heye warned that Trump’s expected focus on El-Sayed could be a liability for Republicans, if voters see it as an attempt to change the subject from economic issues affecting their households.
Days before Trump’s visit to Michigan, Armetris Hare wasn’t thinking about partisan messaging or campaign strategy. She was hoping payday would bring enough customers to keep her food business afloat.
“The economy? I got two words: it sucks,” Hare, 53, said, at a tent she had set up across from a Detroit courthouse to hawk free samples. The food truck that had powered her mobile Motown in Motion catering business is up for sale: gas prices erased all her profits selling hibachi and soul food.
“The war made everything higher,” she said. “Why are we even in this war?”
She said she never voted for Trump, but she also doesn’t blame him, because she thinks it’s his administration that has led him to all these decisions that makes it tough for her business to survive.
“I want Trump to make America great again — but not the way he did it,” she said.
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