DETROIT — President Obama, on a trip to unveil elements of his State of the Union address, took a victory lap in Michigan on Wednesday to tout his support of the auto industry. However concerns about trade policies hung in the background of his tour.

“America’s resurgence is real,” Obama said at a Ford Motor Co plant near Detroit after walking around the factory and sitting in a Mustang.

Obama noted that his government-backed bailout of the auto industry was not popular, even in Michigan, but had been a success.

“Betting on you was the right thing to do,” he told cheering workers at the plant. “That bet has paid off for America.”

Obama will deliver his State of the Union address on Jan. 20 to the new Congress which, for the first time in his presidency, is controlled completely by Republicans. The White House hopes he can make progress on issues such as tax reform, infrastructure investments and trade with lawmakers.

But his push for new trade agreements is controversial in Michigan, where advocates and local officials say a Korean free trade agreement has helped that country’s auto industry significantly more than the U.S. sector.

“That agreement generally has just slammed Michigan,” said Lori Wallach, director of Global Trade Watch, an advocacy group, in an interview.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, without commenting specifically on how the Korean auto industry had benefited, said the success of U.S. car companies in the last few years showed that they had not suffered as a result of the agreement.

Obama’s administration is pushing for a 12-country free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP.)