On March 5, US President Donald Trump delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress since taking office. He opened by stating that despite facing economic headwinds, "America is back," emphasizing the importance of attracting businesses to invest in the US through tariffs rather than the CHIPS Act.
He highlighted significant investments from the Stargate Project and Apple, each amounting to US$500 billion, and TSMC's US$165 billion investment in the most advanced wafer fabrication plant in America. However, Trump then declared that he would not be providing funding to chip manufacturers, describing the Biden Administration's CHIPS Act as "a horrible, horrible thing."
He called for the termination of the US$52 billion semiconductor subsidies under the CHIPS Act and told House Speaker Mike Johnson, "You should get rid of the CHIPS Act. And whatever's left over. Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to."
In his speech, Trump defended his tariff policies and emphasized the need to increase the production of critical minerals and rare earth elements, believing that such actions would promote domestic industry development.
Just hours prior, the US had imposed a 25% tariff on major trading partners Canada and Mexico and doubled the tariff rate on imports from China to 20%.
He claimed that countries like China, South Korea, India, and Brazil impose unfair tariffs on the US, announcing plans to implement reciprocal tariffs against these nations starting April 2. He stressed a policy principle, "That's reciprocal—back and forth — whatever they tax us, we will tax them."
Trump reiterated his commitment to imposing a 25% tariff on foreign aluminum and steel, as well as implementing reciprocal tariffs on all countries that set barriers against US imports, claiming, "We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer."
In addition, Trump stated that he plans on making "interest payments on car loans tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America." He claims that there will be growth in the US auto industry "like nobody's ever seen," with numerous automakers opening plants and making deals, attributing this to the election win and tariffs.
Trump asserted that his tariff measures would more effectively create jobs in the US compared to Biden's policies, including the CHIPS Act and its billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives aimed at stimulating domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
Article translated by Charlene Chen and edited by Jerry Chen