Donald Trump promised to revitalize the American auto industry with tariffs on Tuesday in a town hall in Flint, Michigan, his first major event since a gunman sought to carry out an assassination attempt over the weekend.

The former president and GOP presidential candidate early on noted that both President Joe Biden and Vice President — and Democratic rival for the White House — Kamala Harris called him to wish him well.

“It was very nice, it was very nice. It was very, very nice and we appreciate that,” Trump said. “But we have to take back our country. We have to win, we’re going to win, and we’re going to make America great again. That’s all there is there,” he added, later saying that “only consequential presidents get shot at.”

Trump was golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle was seen peeking through the bushes in the former president’s direction. Secret Service detail fired shots at the man, who was unharmed and later arrested without further incident.

However, Trump made his gracious remarks shortly after repeatedly suggesting that he had the 2020 election stolen from him — suggestions that were met with cheers from the assembled crowd — despite losing every single court case seeking to prove widespread election fraud.

The town hall event was moderated by Trump’s former White House Press Secretary and current governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who introduced her former boss as “the greatest president our country has ever seen.”

In his town hall, Trump would go on to vaguely warn that “they’re taking your automobile industry away,” insisting that he put a damper on the Mexican auto industry, and continuing to insist that he will put tariffs on foreign goods, including passenger vehicles, making them “unsellable in the United States.” 

“We are going to bring so many auto plants into our country. You’re going to be as big, or bigger than you were 50 years ago, because they won’t be able — if they’re not willing to build a plant, we don’t want their product,” Trump said. 

When later asked how he plans to eliminate threats to the future of Michigan manufacturing, Trump again leaned on tariffs, promising to enact what he calls the “Reciprocal Trade Act,” a policy that would levy reciprocal tariffs on imports against any country’s tariffs against the U.S. 

“And you know what’s going to happen? Everything’s going to disappear, and we’re going to end up having free trade again. And if it doesn’t disappear, we’re going to take in a lot of money, OK?” Trump told the audience. “But you know, the biggest beneficiary, I believe, is going to be your state…I promise about your state, you are going to have plants built at a level that you haven’t seen in 50 years.”

And when asked how he would bring down the costs of food and groceries, Trump pivoted to another big-picture answer: energy. “If you make donuts, if you make cars, whatever you make, energy is a big deal, and we’re going to get that,” Trump said, pledging (with a slight hedge) to get peoples’ energy bills cut in half within 12 months in office if elected.

Trump also said that the U.S. is going to need to “work with our farmers,” recalling a conversation with an unnamed farmer in which Trump promised “such a beautiful subsidy.” Farmers, he said, “just wanted a level playing field.”

In 2019, Trump’s administration introduced a $16 billion bailout to farmers suffering from the tariff and trade war the U.S. waged with China and other countries, with Congressional Democrats alleging that small farmers felt the brunt of the war.

Trump also pledged to be “energy dominant” (though the U.S. is already the world’s largest exporter of energy, per federal data) and to tap into national petroleum reserves, though he wasn’t clear on how he expects that to affect grocery and food prices.

Trump will hit the campaign trail again tomorrow, with a stop in New York, while his running mate J.D. Vance campaigns in Raleigh, North Carolina.