Joe Biden spent four years telling truck workers he had their backs.
Now Trump is standing inside the last American-owned heavy truck factory in the country.
And what this union boss said about Trump's tariffs will end every argument you've ever had about free trade.
The Factory Biden's Trade Policy Almost Killed
Peterbilt has been building trucks in America for 121 years.
Its parent company, Paccar, is the only remaining American-owned high-volume heavy truck manufacturer.
Peterbilt and its sister brand Kenworth move roughly 30% of all truck freight in this country – every third semi you see on the highway is theirs.
And for decades, the people running Washington did everything they could to kill it.
NAFTA gutted American manufacturing starting in 1993.
https://twitter.com/FreightWaves/status/2105087449546272773?s=20
Truck production drifted south.
Jobs followed.
The UAW watched 90,000 manufacturing facilities leave the United States while politicians in both parties cashed checks from the same corporations shipping those jobs to Mexico.
Then Trump put a 25% tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks on November 1, 2025.
Paccar added more than 1,000 new jobs at the Denton facility alone.
The company has added more than 2,000 jobs across the U.S. since that single policy decision.
The Union Boss Who Called Trump a Scab Is Now Thanking Him
UAW President Shawn Fain wore a t-shirt at a Kamala Harris rally that said "Trump is a scab."
He called Trump unfit to be president.
He gave a fiery speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Then Trump put tariffs on heavy trucks – and Fain had to pick between his politics and his workers.
He chose his workers.
"We have pushed for action like this for decades, and we congratulate President Trump for delivering for heavy truck workers everywhere," Fain said. "Let's keep going and rewrite our broken trade rules."
https://twitter.com/DallasExpress/status/2105297620004405681?s=20
That is the UAW president – who campaigned hard for Harris – publicly crediting Trump for doing what 30 years of free trade Democrats never would.
In the Big Three automakers alone, Fain says 65 plants closed over the last 20-plus years.
That's not a slump.
That's a policy.
The Number Biden's Media Won't Put Next to Trump's Number
The media wants you to believe the manufacturing boom is a mirage.
They'll show you the BLS headline number – 35,000 manufacturing jobs lost since January 2025 – and stop right there.
What they won't tell you is that Biden lost 202,000 manufacturing jobs in his final 12 months alone.
They won't tell you about the three straight months of manufacturing job gains that reversed that trend.
They won't tell you that the construction sector – the people building new factories – added 95,000 jobs since Trump took office.
You don't hire 95,000 construction workers to build nothing.
The White House counts $11.2 trillion in pledged investments from countries and companies committing to American production.
Eli Lilly. Merck. Pfizer.
https://twitter.com/RonnyJacksonTX/status/2105000068507959733?s=20
Trump said it directly from the Oval Office: "They're all coming back. Hundreds of billions of dollars of plants are being built. We learned during COVID we didn't make anything. Now we're making it all."
He's right.
COVID exposed exactly what 30 years of free trade had done to America – we couldn't manufacture our own medicine, our own chips, our own protective equipment.
We were at the mercy of China.
Trump walked into a Texas truck factory today to make one thing clear: that era is over.
Peterbilt has been doing it for 121 years – and for the first time in decades, Washington is finally on its side.
Sources:
- Edward Lawrence, "Trump to make surprise stop at Texas truck factory to tout manufacturing," Fox Business, September 30, 2026.
- "UAW Head Does Battle With MSNBC Hosts By Vigorously Defending Trump Tariffs," Mediaite, 2025.
- "UAW President Shawn Fain Stands in Support of Tariffs," Dealership Guy News, March 11, 2025.
- "With factory jobs falling, are tariffs working to reshore manufacturing?" Tennessee News Network, 2026.
