Lordstown lesson: Promises need plan

Whatever happened to the solid nugget of common sense: “Actions speak louder than words”? In today’s Trumpism, that wisdom often seems to be forgotten, and President Donald Trump is a prime offender.

The latest case in point is the dreaded but not unexpected announcement from Detroit that General Motors will close its Lordstown, Ohio, plant — one of its largest in the U.S. — and end production of the Chevy Cruze sedan built there.

Back in July 2017, Trump wooed about 8,000 supporters in a Mahoning Valley rally by first lamenting the loss of the area’s vaunted manufacturing jobs and then promising, “They’re all coming back. They’re all coming back. Don’t move, don’t sell your house.” Just words.

The promises sounded good, but any substance behind the president’s assurance was not apparent then and has not been visible since.

GM laid off its 1,200worker third shift at Lordstown the day Trump was inaugurated, Jan. 20, 2017. This past April, GM announced it was eliminating Lordstown’s second shift, costing another 1,500 jobs. So this week’s final-straw notice that the plant will close, erasing the last 1,400 jobs there, was predictable.

Meanwhile, Ohio’s two U.S. Senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman, were doing what they could to try to persuade GM to keep the 1,400 jobs now lost in Lordstown and even invest more in the state.

Brown introduced the American Cars American Jobs Act on Aug. 1. It would offer $3,500 governmentprovided price cuts for buying certain Americanmade cars while denying federal tax cuts to companies that move domestic jobs overseas. Brown met with GM CEO Mary Barra in June and Portman met with her