Trump fumes over GM closures
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted a warning shot across GM’s front bumper Tuesday, threatening to pull all U.S. subsidies for America’s largest automaker if its plans to slash jobs and production at North American plants prove to be a precursor to building interconnected electric cars in China.
The U.S. president’s senior economic adviser was in the middle of a White House briefing when Trump delivered his latest broadside, a full 24 hours after General Motors announced plans to cut more than 14,000 jobs and end production at five plants, including one in Oshawa, Ont.
“The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!” Trump tweeted, noting that GM facilities in both China and Mexico appeared to escape unscathed.
“We are now looking at cutting all GM subsidies, including for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) – don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s Workers!”
But it was hard to miss the fact that the bulk of the U.S. cuts came in the Midwest Rust Belt, a region that was instrumental in elevating Trump and his jobs-promising, “America First” agenda to the White House in 2016. They also cast a pall over this week’s signing of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the hard-won successor to NAFTA that Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, acknowledged Tuesday was designed to foster the growth of the auto sector.
“(Trump) believes – as, frankly the prime minister of Canada, (Justin) Trudeau, believes – that the USMCA deal was a great help to the automobile industry and to auto workers,” Kudlow said.
“There’s disappointment that it seems that GM would rather build its electric cars in China than the United States, and we are going to be looking at certain subsidies regarding electric cars and others, whether they should apply or not.”
What that would look like wasn’t immediately clear: electric vehicles are eligible for a US$7,500 federal tax credit, but neither the president nor Kudlow provided additional details as to whether that’s what they’re reconsidering.