Trump denies he’s to blame for HarleyDavidson decision
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump denied Tuesday that his trade policy is to blame for Harley-Davidson’s decision to shift some motorcycle production overseas, saying on Twitter that the company is using “Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse” to hide previously announced plans to move jobs to Asia.
The Milwaukee-based company said Monday it came to its decision because of retaliatory tariffs it faces in an escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and the European Union. The company had no immediate response Tuesday to the president’s assertions.
Trump warned Harley-Davidson that any shift in production “will be the beginning of the end.”
“The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!” Trump said in one of several tweets Tuesday. He was referring to tariffs Harley-Davidson would face on motorcycles produced overseas and shipped back to the U.S. for sale.
The president has held up the iconic American motorcycle maker as an example of a U.S. business harmed by trade barriers in other countries, but Harley-Davidson had warned that tariffs could negatively impact its sales.
Trump recently imposed steep tariffs on aluminum and steel imported from Canada, Mexico and Europe in his bid to level WKH WUDGH SOD\LQJ ¿HOG DQG UHGXFH WUDGH GH¿FLWV EHWZHHQ WKH U.S. and its trade partners. But those countries have treated Trump’s action as an insult and have chosen to respond in kind.
The U.S. and China are also volleying back and forth over tariffs.
Trump tweeted that Harley-Davidson had already announced it was closing a Kansas City plant and moving those jobs to 7KDLODQG %XW LW ZDV XQLRQ RI¿FLDOV UHSUHVHQWLQJ ZRUNHUV DW that plant who claimed the jobs were being shifted to Thailand. Harley-Davidson has denied a link between Kansas City and Thailand.
“That was long before Tariffs were announced,” Trump said. “Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse. 6KRZV KRZ XQEDODQFHG XQIDLU WUDGH LV EXW ZH ZLOO ¿[ LW ´
Trump said he’s getting other countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers, and to open up markets.
A group from Harley-Davidson met with Trump at the White House last year.
³:KHQ , KDG +DUOH\ 'DYLGVRQ RI¿FLDOV RYHU WR WKH :KLWH House, I chided them about tariffs in other countries, like India, being too high,” Trump tweeted. “Companies are now coming back to America. Harley must know that they won’t be able to sell back into U.S. without paying a big tax!”
7UXPS DGGHG WKDW WKH DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ LV ¿QLVKLQJ D VWXG\ on imposing tariffs on cars from the EU, which he claims has taken advantage of the U.S. for too long.
“A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another countrynever!” Trump tweeted. “Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end - they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!”
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court effectively put an end Tuesday to a California law that forces antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers to provide information about abortion.
The 5-4 ruling also casts doubts on similar laws in Hawaii and Illinois.
The California law took effect in 2016. It requires centers that are licensed by the state to tell clients about the availability of contraception, abortion and prenatal care, at little or no cost. Centers that are unlicensed were required to post a sign that said so. The court struck down that portion of the law.
The centers said they were singled out and forced to deliver a message with which they disagreed. California said the law was needed to let poor women know all their options.
Justice Clarence Thomas in his majority opinion said the centers “are likely to succeed” in their constitutional challenge to the portion of the law involving licensed centers. That means that while the law is currently in effect, its challengers can go back to court to get an order halting its enforcement.
“California cannot co-opt the licensed facilities to deliver its message for it,” Thomas wrote for himself and his conservative colleagues, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. He called the requirement for unlicensed centers “unjusWL¿HG DQG XQGXO\ EXUGHQsome.”
Justice Stephen Breyer said among the reasons the law should be upheld is that the high court has previously upheld state laws requiring doctors to tell women seeking abortions about adoption services. “After all, the law must be evenhanded,” Breyer said in a dissenting opinion joined by his liberal colleagues, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and anti-abortion groups were among those cheering the decision. “Speakers should not be forced by their government to promote a message with which they disagree, and pro-life pregnancy centers in California should not be forced to advertise abortion and undermine the very reason they exist,” Sessions said in a statement.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called the decision “unfortunate” but said “our work to ensure that Californians receive accurate information about their healthcare options will continue.”
The abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice California was a prime sponsor of the California law. NARAL contends that the centers mislead women about their options and tried to pressure them to forgo abortion. Estimates of the number of crisis pregnancy centers in the U.S. run from 2,500 to more than 4,000, compared with fewer than 1,500 abortion providers, women’s rights groups said in a 6XSUHPH &RXUW ¿OLQJ
California’s law was challenged by the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, an organization with ties to 1,500 pregnancy centers nationwide and 140 in California.
In another lawsuit over regulating crisis pregnancy centers, a federal appeals court in New York struck down parts of a New York City ordinance, although it upheld the requirement for unlicensed centers to say that they lack a license.
Other states have laws that regulate doctors’ speech in the abortion context. In Louisiana, Texas and Wisconsin, doctors must display a sonogram and describe the fetus to most pregnant women considering an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Similar laws have been blocked in Kentucky, North Carolina and Oklahoma.
Doctors’ speech has also been an issue in non-abortion cases. A federal appeals court struck down parts of a 2011 Florida law that sought to prohibit doctors from talking about gun safety with their patients. Under the law, docWRUV IDFHG ¿QHV DQG WKH SRVsible loss of their medical licenses for discussing guns with patients.