During his 2024 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump had a moment of self-awareness when he gave his unique speaking style an official name: the weave.
According to Trump, the weave is when he “talks about nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together.” But it isn’t just him who has noticed it. Trump went on to say that friends of his who are English professors have told him that his rhetorical style is “the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.”
So move over, James Joyce, the weave is the new standard bearer.
But while Trump’s verbiage has his English professor friends amazed, sometimes it can also leave people a bit confused about the point he is trying to make.
Take his comments about automakers last week, for example.
Following what Trump called a “great meeting” with members of the auto industry, Trump made a confusing declaration.
“We had the auto industry in yesterday. They don’t want people to fix their car,” Trump said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “I said, ‘That’s strange. I’d never heard of that.’ They have a thing to … Nobody’s allowed to fix their car; they gave a man seven years in jail, actually, because he fixed his own car. So I thought we’d do something about that. But we’ll get it all straightened away.”
While that statement is a perfect example of the weave, it is incredibly confusing.
Ford, GM, left confused by Trump’s statement on repairs
When President Donald Trump claimed that auto industry leaders “don’t want people to fix their car” and then told the story of a man who went to jail for seven years “because he fixed his own car,” he had just one follow-up question.
“You believe it?” Trump asked rhetorically while stating that he pardoned that man last week. A quick search of the White House website didn’t confirm the President’s pardon story, leaving further questions unanswered.
The President said he recently met with Roger Penske of Penske Corp., Andrew Frick, president of Ford Motor, and “the head of General Motors,” and that “we had a great meeting, I think.”
TheStreet reached out to Ford and GM to find out about the meeting. GM declined to comment, and while Ford confirmed to the Detroit Free Press that Frick met with the president, the company pointed TheStreet to the REPAIR Act as a potential source of more information.
But Ford didn’t elaborate past that bit of information.
What is the REPAIR Act?
The Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair Act is a proposed federal legislation making its way through Congress that would codify consumers’ rights to repair and modify the vehicles they own without interference.
“Every year, new barriers, whether legal or technological, hinder vehicle owners’ ability to work on their vehicles, seek repairs at independent automotive shops, and manufacture and install replacement and specialty parts, software, and services to enhance their vehicles’ safety, performance, and comfort,” according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association.
Aftermarket modifications have traditionally been largely mechanical, but as cars become more technologically advanced, “modifying new vehicles to improve performance, safety, reliability, and appearance requires aftermarket businesses to access a vehicle’s electronic control unit (ECU), On-Board Diagnostics Systems (OBD), and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to ensure it understands how the parts and products installed interact with OEM systems,” according to SEMA.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which counts Ford, GM, and dozens of other companies among its members, has written in support of H.R. 7389, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act of 2026, which is competing with the REPAIR Act.
“As we testified before the committee in January, independent auto repairers, collision repair experts, and leading automakers all support the right to repair. Always have, always will,” the AAI said in a recent letter. “Those same independent repairers and collision experts will tell you they have no problem getting exactly what they need to properly and safely repair a vehicle.”
The organization points to the 2014 memorandum of understanding that brought together automakers, independent repairers, and aftermarket parts retailers with a commitment from automakers to make all repair instructions, tools, and diagnostic codes “readily available to dealers and independent repairers. This is why 75% of post-warranty vehicle repair work today happens at independent shops.”
So to recap, the auto industry believes the laws on the books are sufficient to protect drivers who want to take their vehicles to independent shops to repair and modify them. In contrast, others say there are way too many restrictions on making those changes.
There are competing legislative proposals making their way through Congress, and it seems the President has chosen the opposite side of the auto industry. However, the person he says was sentenced to 7 years in prison before being pardoned remains a mystery.
