Obama will travel to Detroit on July 30 to tour General Motors and Chrysler plants and visit a Ford assembly plant in his hometown of Chicago on Aug. 5.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says Obama plans to discuss the progress that the auto industry has made during the past year following the government-led bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler. Gibbs says Obama will acknowledge the decisions were unpopular but necessary to save hundreds of thousands of jobs and rebuild the industry for the future.