Former President Donald Trump said during an economic address Thursday that the United States has allowed “big companies” to “come in and raid and rape our country.”
“‘Oh, he used the word rape.’ That’s right. I used the word rape,” Trump said at the Detroit Economic Club after his remarks were met with what sounded like some gasps from the audience. “They raped our country,” he reiterated.
Trump did not specify what companies he was referring to, but indicated he was talking about businesses that export goods to the U.S. that were made overseas.
“So here’s the deal that I will be offering to the world, to companies outside of our world, big companies, powerful companies, that have become powerful because we were stupid, we were stupid. We allowed them to come in and raid and rape our country. That’s what they did,” he said.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on which companies he was referring to.
Trump then proceeded to tout his plan to incentivize companies in other countries to open factories here, saying “the United States will give you the lowest taxes, the lowest energy costs” and “lowest regulatory burdens.”
The breaks are “only if you make your products here in America.” “And you have to hire American workers,” he said.
Trump added that his administration would impose a “tax or tariff” on companies that don’t manufacture their goods in the U.S.
Trump, who engaged in a trade war with China while in office, has made the tax break or tariffs plan the centerpiece of his economic plan.
As a businessman, Trump and his company have a long history of making Trump-branded products in countries like China, Indonesia, Turkey and Canada.
Trump used similarly loaded language during his 2016 presidential campaign when he singled out China. He said at the time that the country’s currency devaluation would “suck the blood out” of America, and then told rallygoers in Indiana, “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country.”
“That’s what they’re doing. It’s the greatest theft in the history of the world,” he said.
Trump himself faced a rape claim in civil court, when he was sued by writer E. Jean Carroll in 2022. Carroll claimed that he raped her during an encounter in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s, and was able to file the suit because of a New York law that had been passed in 2022 allowing civil actions in such cases even though the statue of limitations had long expired.
Trump denied Carroll’s “disgusting” allegations, but waived his right to testify at the trial. The jury found Trump not liable for rape, but liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.
Trump is appealing the $5 million verdict, as well as a subsequent $83 million defamation verdict stemming from comments he made about Carroll when he was president.
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