Political impact likely from closing of Lordstown

WASHINGTON — The plan of General Motors to close its Chevrolet Cruze assembly line near Youngstown could haunt President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly promised voters that his policies would bring good-paying manufacturing jobs back to Ohio.

Although Ohio lawmakers from both parties expressed fury over General Motors saying it intends to close its 1,600-employee Lordstown plant in March, the company had signaled for months that declining sales and higher steel costs due to tariffs imposed by Trump would eventually hurt automakers.

The move comes nearly a year after the Republican president signed into law a 10-year, $1.5 trillion tax cut that included slashing the corporate income-tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The White House and conservative Republicans predicted that the tax cut would unleash a wave of business investment that would spark the economy and lead to higher wages.

“Donald Trump’s going to take the heat on this because he’s been so out in front about trade,” said David B. Cohen, a professor of political science at the University of Akron. “He’s the guy who said trade wars are easy to win.”

Although GM did not cite steel and aluminum tariffs as behind its decision, the company warned in June that the tariffs the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed on Canada and the European Union would increase company costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, said, “This is a bad combination of greedy corporations and policymakers with no understanding of economic development. So far, President Trump has been asleep at the switch and owes this community an explanation.

“We tried to get his attention on this issue two years ago,” Ryan said. “He promised us that his massive corporate tax cut would lead to dramatic reinvestments in our communities. That clearly is not happening.”

Ryan called for congressional hearings on how GM used its tax-cut savings.

Trump, whose jobs mantra played well with voters in the once-rich Democratic turf of the Mahoning Valley against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that he warned GM CEO Mary Barra on Sunday that “they better damn well open a new plant” in Ohio “very quickly.”

Trump traveled to Youngstown in mid-2017 and promised that manufacturing jobs would return to the region, which had helped him win Ohio the previous fall by nearly 9 percentage points. Ohio looms large in Trump’s 2020 re-election strategy.

The Lordstown plant had shed 3,000 jobs over the past two years prior to the closure announcement.

The political fallout also could hit some Ohio lawmakers. When Trump imposed tariffs on steel imports from Canada and the EU, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said that although he was “open to carving out allies who are not part of the problem,” he insisted that “steel overcapacity is a global problem that needs a global response.”

By contrast, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, objected to the steel tariffs on Canada and the EU, and he was a major champion of the tax cut.

But throughout the day, Democrats and Republicans aimed most of their criticism at GM. Brown assailed the move, pointing out that billions of taxpayer dollars saved the company from collapse during the financial crisis that erupted in 2008, while Trump helped major companies by signing the tax cut.

“Ohio taxpayers rescued GM, and it’s shameful that the company is now abandoning the Mahoning Valley and laying off workers right before the holidays,” Brown said. “Even worse, the company reaped a massive tax break from last year’s GOP tax bill.”

Portman spoke with GM officials Monday and said he was “deeply frustrated with General Motors’ decision,” adding that “for decades, workers in the Mahoning Valley have made a commitment to GM, and today GM let Northeast Ohio down.”

Republican Gov. John Kasich said it was “painful to see this happen to the plant’s workers, their families and the community. We’ll work with GM to see if anything can be done to preserve a future for the plant and in the meantime.”

Republican Gov.-elect Mike DeWine said he and incoming Lt. Gov. Jon Husted plant to visit the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January “to make our case in person to GM about the future of the plant. The autoworkers there are second to none.”