TOKYO — President Trump announced Toyota has promised $10 billion in investments toward new manufacturing plants in the US — urging people to “go out and buy a Toyota” in a wide-ranging speech to sailors aboard the USS George Washington Tuesday in Tokyo Bay.
Trump, who is making trade and economic deals a top goal of his three-nation regional tour, said that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told him earlier in the day that the world’s largest car company would pour funds into American manufacturing plants.
“I was just told by the prime minister that Toyota is going to be putting auto plants all over the United States to the tune of $10 billion. So that’s Toyota — so go out and buy a Toyota,” Trump said aboard the 4.5-acre nuclear-powered ship.
The president on Monday applauded Takaichi for floating a purchase of Ford F-150 pickup trucks for official use and was joined by the prime minister aboard the ship, calling her to the lectern to deliver remarks and wrapping his arm around her.
The speech featured a wide-ranging account of Trump’s foreign policy and unconventional use of the military to fight crime, drug smuggling and illegal immigration.
Trump said leaders of foreign nations “didn’t respect our country just a few years ago” — but that now they do.
“[Former President] Biden used to say he was a pilot, he was a truck driver, whatever, to whoever walked in. He wasn’t a pilot. He wasn’t much of a president, either, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
Trump touted his deployment of troops to the southern border to end the years-long migrant crisis, his deployment of the National Guard into major cities to reduce violent crime and his two-month campaign of bombing alleged drug boats off the coast of South America.
“On my first day back to the White House, I deployed the men and women of the United States military to stop the invasion on our southern border,” Trump said, describing the border now as “tight as a drum.”
Trump repeated his threat to deploy troops to Chicago to drive down shootings and murders.
“We can’t have cities that are troubled. And we’re sending in our National Guard, and if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more because we’re gonna have safe cities,” he said. “We’re not gonna have people killed in our cities, and whether people like that or not, that’s what we’re doing.”
“And you’ve been watching what our missiles do to boats and ships and submarines,” Trump went on.
“How about the submarine? They said, ‘No, it was just fishing.’ The radical-left Democrats said, ‘Well, it was a submarine, but they were just fishing.’ Submarines don’t go fishing, do they? You know more about submarines than I do.”
Trump said the boats he began bombing off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia last month each “kill on average 25,000 people.”
“For many years, the drug cartels waged war on America and, at long last, we’re finally waging war on the cartels,” he said. “Now we’ll stop the drugs coming in by land. That’s going to be very easy.”
Trump also boasted about his involvement in ending conflicts around the world and joked that his tough talk might spoil his chances of winning next year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Takaichi nominated him to receive.
“Nobody makes equipment like we do … and if they do, the American sailor stands ready to crush them and sink them and wreck them and blast them into oblivion, right?” Trump said to enthusiastic applause.
“Everybody said I should immediately get the Nobel Peace award. With that statement, that takes me out of the running.”
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