BANGOR TOWNSHIP, MI — Vice President JD Vance hailed an “American comeback” for businesses at a Friday, March 14, visit to a Bay County plastics manufacturer.
The former Ohio senator championed the economic policies of President Donald Trump during the 2-hour stay in Michigan, a state that favored the Republican ticket in the 2024 presidential election.
Vance brought company from Washington D.C. with him Friday. He also attracted the company of opponents to the site of his Bangor County gathering.
Here are 5 takeaways from Vance’s visit to mid-Michigan:
Tariff talk
Vance‘s visit to Vantage Plastics came during a period of nationwide economic angst, inspired in part by a series of tariffs Trump has threatened and imposed against nations such as Canada and Mexico.
Such measures threaten the economic stability of American businesses that rely on trade agreements with neighboring allies, opponents of Trump’s policies have argued. Addressing a crowd of workers and politicians inside a Vantage Plastics facility on Friday, Vance defended the president’s strategy.
“You hear people say, ‘Well, how dare Donald Trump impose tariffs on foreign countries that have been taking advantage of us for four years?,’” Vance said.
“And the answer is that, unless you’re willing to use American power to fight back against what those countries have been doing for a generation, you are never going to rebuild American manufacturing.”
The opposition
Dozens of protesters gathered outside Bay County’s UAW Local 362, near Vantage Plastics, to offer a cold welcome for the V.P.
People with signs reading “Tariffs hurt USA” and “No Fascists” lined the streets as Vance’s motorcade approached the Bay County site. Many shouted insults and obscenities at the long lineup of Secret Service-led vehicles that pulled into the factory’s parking lot about 11:30 a.m.
Karen Tighe, a former Chair of the Bay County Democratic Party, was there. The 75-year-old said the Trump and Vance administration’s policies represented a threat to federal programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.
“It’s personal to us and that’s why we’re here,” Tighe said. “We want him to know that the economic policies of the Trump administration are hurting local people.”
During his event inside the facility, Vance delivered a verbal jab, directed at the protesters.
“It’s a little after noon on a Friday: Don’t you all have jobs?,” he said, sparking a round of laughter from the crowd of his supporters indoors. “We want those people to get off the streets and back to work.”
Criticizing the governor
The vice president seemed to reference Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who met with Trump at the White House one day earlier. The Michigan’s Democratic governor had called the gathering a “productive meeting.”
Vance, though, seemed to offer a different view of the meet-up between Trump and Whitmer, political rivals who have exchanged verbal spars over the years.
“It’s kind of funny to see some of our Democratic governors — I don’t want to mention which states exactly — coming to the Oval Office and begging for economic development under Trump’s leadership that they knew they would never get under Biden’s leadership,” Vance said.
Looking ahead
Whitmer and the protesters weren’t the only focus of Vance’s criticism Friday.
In advocating for the Trump administration’s policies, Vance took shots at the president’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
“We’re not going to be able to fix everything that Joe Biden broke, but I think, after seven weeks, the progress is pretty good,” Vance said.
The vice president, though, warned supporters of “a long road ahead” as the Trump administration replaces Biden-era economic policies.
“Last November, America reelected a president with a simple goal: to power our nation’s industrial comeback and‚ once again, make the U.S. the world’s manufacturing superpower,” Vance said. “And that is exactly what President Trump has sought out to do.”
Familiar territory
Vance’s visit to Michigan Friday marked his first return to Michigan since a busy fall presidential election campaign season, when the Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns visited the state about 80 times in 2024.
Vance last visited Michigan during a campaign event at the FIM Capitol Theatre in Flint on the day before Election Day.
While Vance campaigned in neighboring Saginaw County last year, Friday represented his first political venture into Bay County.
The community was pro-Trump territory in November. Bay County favored the Republican ticket in the 2024 presidential election. Trump and Vance received 34,792 votes, compared to 25,767 votes for then-Vice President Harris.
