So you ask, why do we make [Inaudible] care about [Inaudible] so every operation [Inaudible]
Why is that [Inaudible]
What, this one?
[Inaudible]
Oh, no, that's [Inaudible]
Got you.
So this is something --
What's the most popular car [Inaudible]
Probably [Inaudible]
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.
Yes, six days a week.
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 -- 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 three hours around the clock.
No, it will. So we're adding a third shift and it's going to be running, as the president said 24 hours, six days a week. And that just shows the demand there is for this product, which 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 -- and his whole staff.
They've been great to work with for us. Um, he personally is incredibly responsive every time we need something or call. And we very much appreciate it and, you know, we couldn't be more excited. We're -- we're -- we're adding market share. We're growing as a company. We're adding jobs, not just here, but elsewhere.
And, uh, yeah, this is -- times are good for us.
And all of the US 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.
So Mr. President, when you renegotiate USMCA, how is that going to help auto workers at Ford?
I don't even think about USMCA. I mean, you know, I want -- 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 is moving here from Canada.
They're coming here from Mexico, from Japan, from Germany, from all over the world. They're coming here. 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 for it. But they're all doing great. The car industry is exciting.
And to be honest with you, Bill, every industry is exciting, just like this.
Yeah. Well, we need to rebuild our industrial base and that's been a priority of yours.
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.
[Inaudible] tariffs -- tariffs --
Yeah. Yes, and the EPA -- EPA, the relief of the --
Tariffs and the relief I gave them from the most ridiculous standards. We had put three computers on -- on a car in order to save about this much gasoline from a class. It was crazy. But I'm very proud of them. And Ford has really been a leader. They've done a great job, but -- but all of them. General Motors is doing really well.
Stellantis is doing really well. We're really happy about it. I just wanted to build their product in the USA.
You don't think you're going to renegotiate USMCA?
Well, I can. It expires very shortly.
Yeah.
And we could have it or not. It wouldn't matter to me. I think they want it. I don't really care about it.
So [Inaudible] [Inaudible]
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 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.
Mr. President, what about the raw materials -- On the manufacturing that you would like to see [Inaudible] satisfied with the level of where it's at right now?
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 -- any other location.
Look, the Ford 150 is done well for a long time because they make a great product.
Do you ever allow Chinese autos into the US?
Well, as you know we have a tariff on Chinese autos. And in Europe, China's taking over the auto business, I would say is a nice statement, but that's the way it is. And here, what is it, 100 percent? We have 100 percent tariff on any car coming in from China. So that makes them able to do very nicely against China.
Mr. President, what about the --
Right? Pretty good, right? Who would have thought that was going to happen, right?
What about the raw materials --
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. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And it's the election, November 5th, and it's other things.
But it's also, I think maybe the biggest part, the election because I'm the tariff person. And everybody now admits that I was right on tariffs, and I hope that we win the Supreme Court case.
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?
Well, we get it, but we have a lot of our own raw -- 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.
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?
Well, that's why Tom's not going to be a Senator any longer, I guess, right?
Well, what do you think --
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. Uh, 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.
Do you think there's going to be a rate cut, though, with inflation aside --
I don't know. With this guy, you don't know. He's -- uh, 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 -- so hopefully he'll be out of there soon.
Did the subpoena impact your timing on naming a fed chair at all?
No.
When do you expect to do that now?
I don't know, sometime in the next few weeks.
Of the big three, Ford makes most of its products right here --
80 percent.
80 percent.
That's a big advantage for Ford.
Is that the reason that you came here today?
No, no. I came here because we're friends, 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.
You said to Iran this morning that help is on the way for protesters. What did you mean by that? What kind of help?
You're going to have to figure that one out. I'm sorry.
How many people have been killed in Iran?
Nobody's been able to give me an accurate number. I have heard numbers from -- everything's 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.
What's the highest number you've heard?
I think it's a lot. It's -- it's too many, whatever it is.
[Inaudible] $53 a barrel. Is that the target for you for this term?
I'd love to see that. Yeah. I mean, we're at 68. We're at 58 now. I'd like to see 53. Thank you very much, everybody.
[Inaudible]
[Inaudible]
[Inaudible] US allies --
I would say, they could -- it's not a bad idea. I think they should get out.
Mr. President, this is [Inaudible]
How you doing, Mr. President?
[Crosstalk]
[Inaudible]
[Inaudible]
Because to get to the components [Inaudible] you have to be tall to be able to reach in the back of the vehicle, to be able to reach down.
And building artificial doesn't help you.
No, no, no, no, no. Well, you want it -- yeah, absolutely.
No, he couldn't do it.
I can't do it. No.
We could -- we could find something to help him out, but --
Yeah, help him out.
Yeah, we got something down there for him.
Go ahead.
How are you doing?
Good. Nice to meet you.
Yeah, you too. Thank you.
You got any questions about this area, sir? I'd be happy to answer it.
No, I just think it's a great -- I think it's a great product. What a great -- what a great thing to do. It's really an amazing thing.
So I don't know if you know this. This is kind of cool. Time magazine, I don't know if you saw this, they, for our 250th as a nation, interviewed 10,000 people and said what is the most iconic American company. You know, McDonald's, Disney, number one -- number one, just came out. We were named by not the editors of Time but the 10,000 --
[Inaudible] got a lot of love for this whole thing, I see.
We all do.
And he really does -- he calls me all the time, can we get rid of this environmental piece of garbage?
No, he's been great. He's been great.
[Inaudible] just sort of common sense basis. I don't know that much.
Well, you know a lot.
They would tell me about something, I'd say, that's no good, you know, that's no good.
Yeah.
But we brought trucks back. Now, do you do trucks in this factory or different factory?
Well, we do the F-150 here and then --
Those are the [Inaudible] --
-- the bigger ones --
Where do you do the big ones?
Well, we do them in Louisville [Inaudible]
Are they very big ones or big?
Yeah, the big one, all the way to 650.
Yeah, they're not --
250 to 650.
You saw an F-450 at Ma-a-Lago with your face on it.
I thought it was incredible. The double wheels.
Yeah, exactly.
We have a special --
We have a special something for you.
-- American flag for you, that we've been working on. You're going to love it.
Is it here?
Yeah.
I want to see it.
The team's been working on it.
Thank you.
[Crosstalk]
Thank you so much, it was a pleasure.
[Inaudible] a rich member had it.
Thank you again, sir.
And I saw the 150. I saw the 250. 250 is good. But the 150 still does better.
Yeah, because it's more affordable. You can drive it easier. Uh, it does -- most of what --
But the 450 is unbelievable.
Well, that's a work truck.
We're actually -- we're actually quoting for the Defense Department to bring down the cost of the troop carrier from the primes like 250,000 --
Well, let me know and I'll help you -- I'll help. Yeah. I'll help you with it.
With the Super Duty.
I think you've got an interview --
Let's go do --