Hillary Clinton lists all the places in America where Donald Trump could make his products instead of China

Hillary Clinton laid down a challenge to Donald Trump’s campaign and its attempt to woo blue-collar voters by listing American companies that Trump could have used to manufacture his branded products.

The Democratic candidate promised a “true manufacturing renaissance” to workers at the Futuramic engineering and manufacturing company in Michigan, listing more than 100 American companies that she said her Republican rival overlooked.

The contest for votes in America’s industrial heartland has been at the centre of this week’s campaign as both candidates set out their agenda for jobs.

After Mr Trump’s key economic speech in Detroit on Monday, which was interrupted by protesters more than a dozen times, Ms Clinton seemed determined to shower her supporters in optimism, promising millions of new jobs and more high-quality apprenticeships.

“The answer is not to rant and rave and cut ourselves off from the world,” she insisted. “The answer is to make trade work for us and not against us.”

Did Donald Trump ever consider manufacturing his branded ties by the “Knotty Ties” company in Colorado?

Would he consider switching his shirt manufacturers from Bangladesh to Californian-based company “Blade + Blue”?

She also pledged to tax companies that wanted to set up overseas, oppose trade deals including the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would “harm” American workers and invest $10 billion to support American manufacturers.

“As president I will stand up to China or anyone else that tries to take advantage of American workers or companies,” she declared, adopting a smidgeon of the aggressive swagger normally adopted by her rival when it came to lambasting “awful” trade deals.

“I won’t hesitate to impose targeted tariffs when countries break the rules.”

Her comments come as Mr Trump has had to fend off accusations that he employs foreign workers and outsources manufacturing for many of his Trump-branded products abroad.

The criticism has also landed on his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, whose best-selling fashion line is mostly manufactured in China and Vietnam.

In Michigan this week, Ms Clinton seemed comfortable in what is normally Mr Trump’s stomping ground of white America, speaking of her father’s small business background and her grandfather’s 50-year tenure as a lace factory worker in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Support from voters in Michigan and other predominantly manufacturing states, whose hey day is already seen by many to be behind them, is important.

According to a Morning Consult Survey last month, 41 per cent of voters with no college degree support Mr Trump, and 40 per cent support Ms Clinton.

She even spoke up for undocumented workers, who, she said, contribute $12 billion to social security and who are being taken advantage of by employers.

“America’s best days are still ahead of us if we make up our minds to go out and make that happen,” she said.

Her economic plan promises to “put Americans to work” in the biggest way since the Second World War, employing people to rebuild and modernize roads, bridges, tunnels, railways and airports - another sword on the same battleground as the Trump campaign, which often complains at rallies of crumbling infrastructure.

Renewable energy, which Mr Trump has passionately fought against, could be one more key to revamping manufacturing in the US.

Ms Clinton said she wanted to make America the “superpower” of renewable energy in the 21st century.

“It will most likely be China, Germany or America. I want it to be us,” she said.

“We invent the technology. We should make it, use and export it, which will help us to grow our economy.”