Donald Trump Blasts Electric Vehicles 🇺🇲 Learn English with the News

Today you're going to improve  your fluency in English by  

reading and listening to English at the same time.

We're going to read a news article together,  

and this is the best method that  you can use to become fluent fast.

Welcome back to JForrest

English, I'm Jennifer.

Now, let's get started.

First, I'll read the headline  Trump BLASTS Electric Vehicles  

in Michigan a day after Biden's picket line visit.

Now, before we begin this lesson,  I'll let you know that I reviewed  

a separate article about Biden's visit to  Michigan, which came before Trump's visit.

And I explain a lot of vocabulary that you'll  see in this lesson, such as picket line.

I don't want to explain that again,  

so I left the link to Biden's visit to Michigan  in the description and the comments section.

So you're welcome to pause this video and watch  

Biden's visit first so you  can learn this vocabulary.

Now with that, let's review some other  vocabulary in this headline here, such as blasts.

Here, blast is a verb and you  blast someone or something.

In this case, he's blasting something.

Electric vehicles.

And this is when you criticize  and you criticize severely.

So a lot of criticism.

Trump blasts electric vehicles in Michigan.

He criticizes severely  electric vehicles in Michigan.

Now the opposite of BLAST is commend.

When you commend something, it  means you praise it, you support it.

So I hope you commend this  video and you don't blast it.

Of course, I don't want you to criticize  this video, so you can put in the comments.

I know we just started, but  you can put in the comments.

I commend this video.

Hopefully you feel that way.

But if you want to blast it,  that is your right to do so.

I just hope you don't.

And I hope you commend this video.

I commend this video.

Put that in the comments.

All right, so Trump blasts  electric vehicles in Michigan.

If you're not aware, in Michigan they  have a very large automobile industry.

That's where most of the cars  in North America are made.

So that's why he blasts  electric vehicles in Michigan.

And this is a day after Biden's picket line visit.

Of course, as I said, you can  review this in my other lesson.

Now don't worry about taking these notes because  I summarized everything in a free lesson PDF.

So you can look for the link in the description.

Let's continue as his Republican rivals prepared  

to gather on stage in California  for their second primary debate.

Donald Trump was in Michigan.

OK, let's stop here and look  at the verb gather on stage.

When you gather, it means  individual people come together.

So it's another way of saying meet.

We gathered to discuss the report.

We met to discuss the report.

Now on stage is simply because this was during  a debate and the candidates who are debating  

are on a stage and then the audience is well in  the audience watching the candidates on stage.

So the candidates gathered on stage  and the audience watched that.

Let's continue with the sentence.

Donald Trump was in Michigan on Wednesday  night working to win over blue collar voters.

So let's review that.

Win over is a phrasal verb,  and you win someone over.

When you win someone over, you simply you  get their support or you get their approval.

So if you go to a job interview or  you're trying to get a new client,  

you want to win that person over.

You want to convince them to  offer you the job or work for you.

So you might say, I hope this  proposal will win over the client,  

will get the client to support you,  approve you, and then therefore hire you.

Now in this case, Donald Trump is  trying to win over blue collar voters.

Have you heard this adjective before, blue collar?

And then what's the opposite of blue collar?

There's blue collar and there's white collar.

It relates to the type of  work that these people do.

So blue collar workers, generally the work they  do requires physical strength and physical skill.

Like an auto, an auto worker, a  plumber, a Carpenter, a builder.

Those would be considered blue collar  workers, a white collar worker.

The work they do more requires their mental  skill, not necessarily their physical strength.

And so those are generally  people who work in offices.

So Donald Trump is trying to win over blue  collar voters by lambasting President Joe Biden.

Lambasting.

Now first I'll note that there are two alternative  pronunciations, best or best, basting or basting.

The one I use, basting  lambasting, is the more common.

But you may also hear in American pronunciation  basting, lambasting, lambasting, lambasting.

I recommend lambasting because it is more common.

Now what does this mean by  lambasting President Joe Biden?

Again, it's another way of  saying criticize by criticizing.

And remember, what else did we learn by blasting?

President Joe Biden.

So criticizing.

Notice here it's an ING.

And that's because we need to conjugate our verb.

We have a preposition.

So we need the ING by criticizing, by blasting.

I'll just add that so you remember  the other word we learn blasting.

I will note though, blasting is a  lot more common than lamb basting.

And also notice blast.

So there's an L in blast, but  here is not lamb blasting.

No, it's lamb basting.

Basting.

So remember blast but lamb basting.

OK, by lamb basting President Joe  Biden and his push for electric cars.

So his push for something.

When you push for something, you  demand that something repeatedly.

So President Joe Biden and his push for  electric cars, that could mean that he's  

demanding that us as the drivers drive  electric cars over gas powered cars.

So he's pushing for electric cars  to be widely used in in public life.

He's pushing for electric cars so you can demand  

it and you demand it repeatedly or you  simply try to make something happen.

So if Joe Biden is pushing for electric cars,  

maybe he introduced a policy and he is trying  to get everyone to support that policy as well.

And the policy is that where the  general public we're required to  

drive electric cars as an example,  the workers pushed for higher wages.

So again, they could just repeatedly  ask or demand higher wages.

We want higher wages.

We want higher wages or they  really try to make that happen.

So President Joe Biden and his push for electric  cars in the midst of an auto workers strike.

So again, this auto workers strike, that's  covered in the other lesson that I prepared  

on Joe Biden's visit to Michigan,  So you can learn more about that.

The link is in the description.

Now in the midst of that's if this is the  start and the end of the auto workers straight.

The midst of is in the middle  or somewhere in progress of.

So it's not at the beginning it's not at the end.

It's in the midst of.

You can also say, you could say during  simply push for electric cars Oh sorry,  

the in belongs to the expression.

So it's in the midst of something.

Now all of that can be replaced with during push  for electric cars, during an auto workers strike.

Or you could even say amid, which  is slightly more formal than during.

But as you can see, it's a lot shorter.

It only takes 4 letters instead of  four individual words to say the  

exact same thing during an auto workers strike.

Amid an auto workers strike.

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

The Republican frontrunners trip.

So the Republican frontrunner is Donald Trump.

Now his trip comes a day after Biden, and I'll  point out that a front runner is the person  

who is currently leading something,  usually in terms of a competition.

So imagine a race where all these people are  running and they're competing in this race,  

and then there's one person who's  leading, one person who is faster.

He is the front runner, but you can use this for  any competition, not just in a race or athletic.

Because here we have a political competition.

In a job interview, there could be 5 candidates.

Of course there's going to be one, maybe  even 2 frontrunners, 2 people or one person.

Who is the strongest out of that group?

Who's more likely to get the job because they were  able to successfully win over the interviewer?

I wrote that definition and  here's an example sentence.

We interviewed 5 applicants  and Tony is the front runner,  

so the one leading his portfolio won  us over because you win someone over.

And this is in the past.

Simple.

His portfolio won us over the  Republican frontrunners trip.

Again, that's Donald Trump's  trip comes a day after Biden  

became the first sitting president in U.S.

history to walk a picket line as he  joined United Auto Workers in Detroit.

Again, this is the topic of the other lesson  I reviewed, so I'm not going to repeat that.

The link is in the description.

The union is pushing for oh, we see this again.

And that's exactly the sentence I gave  the workers pushed for higher wages.

And here it is.

The union is pushing for higher wages.

The only difference is I put mine in the past.

Simple.

And here we have it in the  present continuous because  

they're in progress now is  pushing for higher wages.

So they're demanding it and they're taking  action to accomplish this shorter work weeks  

and assurances from the country's top automakers  that new electric vehicle jobs will be unionized.

OK, so there pushing for more than one thing.

They're pushing for three things.

Let's talk about assurances.

This is a noun and an assurance,  in this case plural assurances.

And assurance is basically a promise.

It's a firm commitment.

You may know the verb form, which is assure.

I assure you that I'll drive you to the airport.

So if I say this to you, you can  feel relaxed because you know I'm  

going to take you to the airport because I  assured you, which is saying I promised you,  

I gave you a firm commitment, I will do this now.

This is the verb form which, to be  honest, is more commonly used now.

If you use it as the noun form assurance,  you give someone your assurance.

So that's why her matches she she gave me  I'm the someone, and it's her assurance.

The assurance, the commitment,  the promise belongs to her.

She gave me her assurance.

Now the word promise functions  in exactly the same way.

Here it's a verb, and here it's a noun.

And you can give someone your promise as well.

So that's assurances from the  country's top automakers that  

new electric vehicle jobs will be unionized.

So I assure you, the new electric  vehicle jobs will be unionized.

That's what they want to hear.

The dueling appearances.

Dueling, let's talk about this here.

Dueling is an adjective and  it describes the appearances.

Now the word dual is a competition or a fight,  and it's usually between two people, but in this  

case is an adjective describing appearances  and appearance is when you appear in public.

So we have Donald Trump appearance,  

his appearance, and then we  have Joe Biden's appearance.

So when they both appear in public now,  

those appearances, they're in  competition with each other.

They're fighting each other.

So the dueling appearances  preview what will likely be  

a chief dynamic of the 2024 general election.

So by describing this as a preview,  

it's saying that this is what we  can expect in the 2024 election.

Just like a movie trailer  is a preview of the movie,  

it tells you what you can expect in the movie.

So they're saying that these two appearances,  Joe Biden in Michigan, Donald Trump in Michigan.

This is what we can expect  in the 2024 general election,  

which increasingly looks like a  rematch between Trump and Biden.

It's a rematch, which means  they're matching again.

They're competing again because they already  competed against each other in the past.

So it's a rematch.

I wrote that definition.

Now let's continue.

Michigan is expected to again be a  critical battleground state as both  

candidates try to paint themselves  as champions of the working class.

Now generally the working class that includes  both blue collar and white collar workers.

In this case the focus is more on blue collar  workers because in Michigan the main industry is  

the automotive industry and people work mainly  with their hands and their physical strength.

So more so blue collar  workers, a battleground state.

Well, it's in Michigan that  they're going to battle, of course,  

metaphorically in the sense of they're going  to compete against each other politically.

They're going to debate, they're  going to appear in that state.

They're going to try to win  over voters in Michigan.

It's a battleground state.

Now if they try to paint themselves as,  

it's simply saying to describe  themselves as or to appear as.

So Donald Trump wants to paint himself  as a champion of the working class.

So he's working for them.

He's there to support them and their needs.

But Donald or but Joe Biden also wants to be  

known as to describe himself as  a champion of the working class.

So they're trying to paint themselves  as describe themselves appear as let's  

continue Trump's decision to skip another debate.

When you skip something like a meeting, a class,  

a party, an event, it means you  don't do it, you don't do it.

So he didn't go to the debate.

If you skip class, it means you didn't go to  class even though you had an obligation to do it.

So if you say, oh, I skipped the meeting at work  today, it means you were invited to the meeting.

It was expected that you would attend the  meeting, but you didn't attend the meeting.

So I skipped the 9:00 meeting today  because I was very busy with other tasks.

So I wrote that definition for skip.

And here's an example.

I skipped the 9:00 AM meeting today because  I was busy trying to win over the client.

So your boss won't be mad at you for skipping  the meeting because you had a very good reason.

So Trump's decision to skip another debate  comes as he maintains A commanding lead.

This isn't a way of saying a big lead,  a commanding lead in the GOP primary.

Because remember, Trump is the front runner,  

even as he faces four separate criminal  indictments and as his campaign works  

to pivot to the general election months  before primary voting begins next year.

Let's talk about pivot 2.

So pivot is a verb.

So if I'm right here and I pivot, I  turn or move in a different direction.

That's physically what you do  with your body for the verb pivot.

So if you pivot your foot, you move  your foot in a different direction.

But we use this also to say that right now I'm  

working on this task and I'm  going to pivot to this task.

So it's you.

You move in another direction, but  in this case, it's your attention.

It's what you're working on.

So before he was involved in  these criminal indictments  

that had all of his attention and focus.

And now he's going to pivot.

He's going to turn his attention to.

The general election.

So he's going to shift his focus,  Turn his attention to shift his focus.

That's another useful expression.

It means the same thing.

I'll write that for you to shift his focus to the  general election so you can use any one of these.

Drake Enterprises makes automotive  and heavy duty truck components,  

including gear shift levers for semi trucks,  

said it's president Nathan Stumpel who noted  a shift to electric cars would cripple him.

Okay.

I'm not too sure how this relates  to what we were just talking about,  

but I think it's because of this part.

He noted a shift to electric cars.

So in this case actually a shift would  mean the same as a pivot because right now  

the general public we drive gas powered  cars and if we shift to electric cars,  

we're going to pivot to electric cars,  we're now going to drive electric cars.

So you change from one to the other.

So that's shift to you could  also say, pivot to electric cars.

Now it would cripple him.

It would cripple him.

This is another way of  saying it would destroy him.

It would destroy, for example,  COVID crippled many businesses.

COVID destroyed many businesses.

So this is a very useful  alternative in your vocabulary.

While Trump AIDS had said his audience  would include several 100 current and  

former UAW members, this was the  union, the auto Workers Union.

And then this Drake Enterprises  would be probably part of the union.

That's why they're talking about him.

And remember Trump both Trump and  Biden want to win over these workers.

So they want these workers support.

Now here Trump aids, these  are aids is another word of  

assistance and it's specifically  used in politics a political aid.

They just used the word political  aid instead of assistant.

Whereas assistant is most commonly  used in offices assistant.

So while Trump assistance, Trump  AIDS had said his audience would  

include several 100 current and former UAW  members as well as members of plumbers and  

pipefitters unions, These are again  both examples of blue collar workers.

The crowd also included many non union  workers who support the former president.

The former president of course  being Donald Trump because he's  

not the current president, he's a past president.

So the former president, I  wrote that information for you.

Now let's continue.

Some said they had been invited by  people who did business with Drake.

Remember, Drake was the enterprise here who said  

they would be crippled if there  was a shift to electric cars.

And remember, Donald Trump is  there to blast electric cars.

So by blasting electric cars,  by criticizing electric cars,  

Donald Trump is trying to win them over.

I wrote this example for you.

Donald Trump is trying to win these blue  collar workers over by blasting electric cars.

I'll read this again.

Some said they had been invited by  people who did business with Drake.

Others said they had simply arrived at the factory  Wednesday afternoon and been allowed to attend.

And that's the end of the article.

So what I'll do now is I'll go to the beginning  and I'll read the article from start to finish.

And this time you can focus on my pronunciation.

Let's do that now.

Trump blasts electric vehicles in Michigan  a day after Biden's picket line visit as his  

Republican rivals prepared to gather on stage  in California for their second primary debate.

Donald Trump was in Michigan on Wednesday night  

working to win over blue collar voters  by lambasting President Joe Biden and  

his push for electric cars in the  midst of an auto workers strike.

The Republican frontrunners trip comes a day after  Biden became the first sitting president in U.S.

history to walk a picket line as he  joined United Auto Workers in Detroit.

The union is pushing for higher wages,  shorter work weeks and assurances from  

the company's top automakers that new  electric vehicle jobs will be unionized.

The dueling appearances preview what will likely  be a chief dynamic of the 2024 general election,  

which increasingly looks like a  rematch between Trump and Biden.

Michigan is expected to again be a  critical battleground state as both  

candidates try to paint themselves  as champions of the working class.

Trump's decision to skip another debate comes as  he maintains A commanding lead in the GOP primary,  

even as he faces four separate criminal  indictments, and as his campaign works  

to pivot to the general election months  before primary voting begins next year.

Drake Enterprises makes automotive  and heavy duty truck components,  

including gear shift levers for semi trucks,  

said it's president Nathan Stumpel, who noted  a shift to electric cars would cripple him.

While Trump aides had said his audience  would include several 100 current and  

former UAW members, as well as members  of plumbers and pipefitters unions.

The crowd also included many nonunion  workers who support the former president.

Some said they had been invited by  people who did business with Drake.

Others said they had simply arrived at the factory  Wednesday afternoon and been allowed to attend.

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