Last month it was announced Stellantis will be reopening the Chrysler Belvidere plant of Belvidere, Illinois. As I predicted 2 years ago this month, it will not be reopening because of former president Joe Biden (D) and Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker’s (D) grandstanding efforts from November 2023. The plan Biden touted at the time was for the Belvidere plant to make a new electric truck as well as batteries for electric vehicles.
But in 2023 electric vehicle production was already being soundly rejected by the American consuming public. There were private talks that the climate change cult of the Democratic Party was leading to the demise of all 3 American automakers, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.
“Biden touts UAW contract, reopening of Belvidere plant in Illinois visit” – ABC 7 Chicago
But President Donald Trump came into office for his second term grounded by principles like America First, logical reasoning, and conservative sanity. He enacted tariffs on big ticket items like vehicles made outside the United States making vehicles made in America more affordable for Americans. This forced production back into the United States. And while the liberal Democrats mocked and ridiculed the Trump tariffs, they are actually working exactly as Trump planned. So now, the Jeeps are on the other feet, so to speak!
“The Liberals handed Stellantis $15 billion with no job guarantees and called it an ‘investment.’” – Pierre Poilievre
What is hysterical about this news clip from Canadian Poilievre is he blasts the Canadian liberal politicians who caused this to happen and then ends with a commentary where he discusses what needs to be done to “Keep Canada First”, ironic, and yet funny. Who knew Trump could destroy liberals on both sides of a border with one simple stroke of an Oval Office Pen? Who knew conservatives of both America and Canada think the right thing to do is put the interests of their own country ahead of the interests of other countries?
Probably just about every thinking person on the planet, that’s who!
So Stellantis is bringing back production of both the Compass and Cherokee sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to Belvidere, Illinois and this decision had absolutely nothing to do with Joe Biden or J.B. Pritzker, and Americans, and more specifically Illinoisans, see the truth in this matter and will be turning from blue to red! Money (capitalist jobs) talks and bullsh!t (liberal gaslighting) walks.
CONCLUSION:
This news story is very personal to me for many reasons.
- Jeep is historically termed the vehicle that helped us win World War II and drivers of the original Jeep Wrangler and newer Jeep Gladiator pickup have their own 2-finger V victory wave to remember this history as they pass one another on the road to this day!
- I have been driving manual transmission Jeeps since 1988 and have now driven 7 Jeeps over a half a million miles in my lifetime. I traded none of them because they had issues! I was just ready for something new and improved.
- I had several of my college graduates working for the Belvidere Jeep plant and its suppliers before the Biden Build-Back-Butkus economic disaster program of 2023. I am pretty sure they have since been reemployed but they may have UAW return rights to Belvidere when it reopens in 2027.
- This plant has been shuttered in the past but never for this long before, another Joe Biden record and not of the good kind.
- I hope Stellantis, the UAW, and the Trump Administration can work together to have this Belvidere plant create and make a more affordable compact entry-level vehicle in the future. If they fail to respect the price (breaking) point where American consumers can no longer afford big ticket items like houses and vehicles, the Belvidere Stellantis plant may be closed once again.
This story reminds me of a college paper I wrote. I wish I had saved it, but I went to school in the days before computers and electronic files.
In the paper I wrote about our politicians who are allowed to continually sell out the American people by sending our American inventions and ingenuity abroad to be made by cheap labor. I asked what we, the people, are going to do for jobs which will allow Americans to continue to be the largest consumer nation in the world?
It is always about the math. The math holds that in 2023, 1,300 Americans lost their auto manufacturing jobs under Joe Biden in Belvidere, Illinois alone. In 2027, 3,000 Americans will be getting new auto manufacturing jobs in Belvidere, Illinois making the same vehicles. In the meantime, Canada lost some $15 billion dollars in government subsidies related to Stellantis, and America will be seeing $16 billion dollars in new corporate investment here in America.
God bless President Trump!
© 2025 by Mark S. Schwendau
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Thinking Conservative.
