WASHINGTON - Three Democratic senators on Friday urged President Donald Trump to bar Chinese automakers from building vehicles in the United States and to prevent Chinese cars assembled in Mexico or Canada from entering the United States.

Senators Tammy Baldwin, Elissa Slotkin and Chuck Schumer cited Trump's comments in January in Detroit that he is open to Chinese automakers building U.S. factories.

"We must be clear-eyed that inviting China’s automakers to set up shop in the United States would confer an insurmountable economic advantage impossible for American automakers to overcome, and it would trigger a national security crisis that could never be reversed," the lawmakers said in a letter to Trump first reported by Reuters.

-Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci/Reuters