President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Peterbilt Motors’ manufacturing facility in Denton, Texas, on Thursday, where he is expected to tour the truck plant and address employees as the White House promotes its trade and manufacturing policies.
The White House said Trump plans to use the visit to emphasize his economic agenda and its effect on U.S. manufacturing, according to NBCDFW.
The Denton stop places one of the best-known heavy-duty truck manufacturing operations in the United States at the center of the administration’s argument that tariffs and other trade measures are encouraging manufacturers to expand domestic production.
Trump is expected to point to what he describes as a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing driven by tariffs, tax policy and deregulation. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said the administration’s policies have produced more than 1 million private-sector jobs and trillions of dollars in announced investments.
The administration is also expected to highlight the 25% tariff on imported medium- and heavy-duty trucks that took effect Nov. 1, 2025, as well as tariffs covering truck parts that do not comply with USMCA requirements. The White House proclamation established the 25% duty for qualifying medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, with specific provisions for U.S. content in USMCA-compliant vehicles.
A White House official told Fox Business that Peterbilt parent PACCAR (NASDAQ: PCAR) has increased U.S. truck production and employment since the tariffs were introduced.
According to the official, the policy has been associated with more than 1,000 additional jobs at the Denton facility and more than 2,000 across PACCAR’s U.S. operations. Those figures came from the White House and were not independently confirmed in the materials reviewed by FreightWaves.
The visit comes as the North American truck manufacturing sector faces several overlapping pressures, including tariffs, changing emissions requirements and a freight market that has limited demand for new equipment.
Government employment data also presents a more complicated picture of the broader U.S. manufacturing sector. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures cited by Fox Business show that the U.S. economy added 807,000 jobs after Trump returned to office in January 2025, while manufacturing employment declined by 35,000 during the same period.
The administration has argued that employment statistics have not yet fully captured the effect of investments in new factories and other domestic projects.
Peterbilt’s Denton manufacturing base
Peterbilt, a division of Bellevue, Washington-based PACCAR, produces medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks. PACCAR also owns Kenworth and DAF, its European truck manufacturer, while manufacturing powertrains and truck components and providing financial and aftermarket services.
The Denton plant began with 81 employees and production of approximately 2.5 trucks per week.
By 2016, the workforce had expanded to roughly 2,000 employees, while production capacity had increased by about tenfold compared with the facility’s originally anticipated maximum of 16 trucks per day.
PACCAR has continued to invest in Peterbilt and its Denton operations. According to PACCAR’s 2025 annual report, Peterbilt held a 14.8% share of the U.S. and Canadian Class 8 market that year. The Denton facility also produced its 10,000th Model 589.
Trump’s visit comes only weeks before the November midterm elections. The White House has indicated that the president intends to maintain an active domestic travel schedule as the administration promotes its economic record.
For the North American trucking industry, the Denton appearance puts tariffs and domestic manufacturing directly into the spotlight at a time when manufacturers and fleets are also dealing with shifting regulatory requirements, equipment demand and sourcing decisions.
Why it matters: Tariffs designed to encourage domestic truck production can affect where commercial vehicles and their components are manufactured, while also influencing equipment costs and sourcing strategies for truck builders and fleets.
