CEO is unhappy over fake quote

Company’s boss denies deriding Trump on Twitter.

President Donald Trump has spent two days pummeling Harley-Davidson over its decision to move some production abroad, threatening to tax the motorcycle company and warning it would lose its American allure.

Then it appeared as if Harley-Davidson’s chief executive was punching back with a quote disparaging Trump. Except the quote was fake. Harley-Davidson is suffering the fate of many of those who tangle with the president: Twitter trolls.

Since announcing this week that it would relocate some of its production to mitigate the impact of retaliatory European tariffs, Harley-Davidson’s chief executive has been the subject of an online smear campaign. Tuesday night, a fake quote critical of Trump and attributed to the company’s chief executive, Matthew Levatich, began circulating on Twitter.

The quote, which disparaged Trump’s understanding of trade and economics, was being spread by some accounts with very few followers, but quickly went viral. The company was inundated with queries about its veracity.

Michael Pflughoeft, a spokesman for Harley-Davidson, said that the anti-Trump quote linked to the company’s chief executive that was circulating on Twitter in various forms was “absolutely, unequivocally fake and false.”

He said the company has been working with Twitter to see if the tweets could be removed and to figure out where they originated. The company became aware of the fake quote Tuesday night and was soon fielding questions about it.

Pflughoeft would not speculate as to whether there was a coordinated smear campaign at work against Harley’s chief executive.

“I’m just telling you it’s false,” he said.

The relationship between Trump and Harley-Davidson has gone from a love affair to a bad breakup in a matter of months. Trump has frequently championed the Wisconsin company as a success story in domestic manufacturing.

But on Monday, the company said the president’s trade approach had put its business at a disadvantage, as the European Union hit Harley-Davidson with tariffs of 31 percent on every motorcycle exported to Europe in retaliation for Trump’s metal tariffs. To avoid raising its prices and risk losing business in the valuable European market, Harley-Davidson said it would shift some bike production overseas.