Donald Trump has continued his ongoing Twitter tirade against nearly everyone by blathering on about General Motors. He’s going against this company for what he claims is an instance of a multinational corporation taking advantage of underpriced labor and capitalistic gains, which Trump himself has done in outsourcing labor for many of his products.
The tweet in question reads as follows: “General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!”
In reality, only a small portion of hatchbacks (about 2.4 percent) were made in Mexico. All Chevy sedans sold in the U.S. are built in GM’s plant in Ohio. The hatchback version that’s made in Mexico is made for a global audience, with only a small portion of those hatchback models even sold in the U.S.
“All Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the U.S. are built in GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S.” – General Motors
The majority of the hatchbacks that are built are built specifically for the international market, which renders Trump’s point moot. In reality, General Motors is a company that, while American, has no loyalty or necessity to make all of their vehicles in the United States.
The only loyalty they have, just like any other company, is to their shareholders. They don’t need to build their vehicles in the United States if they don’t want to, especially if it’s not financially advantageous for them to do so.
This all comes with the fact that Trump felt he had no obligation to actually pay his workers for work that they’ve done or even hire American models for his talent agency. This is only the latest in a string of contradictions that Trump has found himself in when it comes to his Twitter tirades. One only needs to wait for a new tweet to be posted in order to catch Trump in some kind of lie or half-truth at best.
Back on the subject of the car in question, Americans are not interested in small cars in the way that they were before. There’s more of a swing now for larger cars or SUVs, even trucks. The auto business is always cyclical, so this is likely to change soon enough, but for now it still remains the case that the Chevy Cruze isn’t a particularly popular car anyway.
All of this belies the point that the Tweeter-in-Chief continues to set off inflammatory rhetoric that causes issues not just with corporations but with countries themselves. This is coming from a man who openly called for Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email server in order to influence the election–something that was ultimately done according to both the CIA and the FBI.
We’ve seen Trump openly call for a nuclear arms race after having conflicting statements about his stance on nuclear weapons, even claiming that the United States should leave nothing off the table. This sort of rhetoric is not only wrong, it goes against the United States’ long-standing policy of nuclear disarmament and an overall reduction in the number of nuclear weapons worldwide.
Without even taking office, Trump already drew ire from the Chinese when he accepted a call from Taiwan. The United States has long subscribed to the One China policy which holds that Taiwan is a part of China. China has already called Trump an amateur who will be taught a lesson once he takes office.
This comes alongside points that Trump has nominated an Attorney General who stated that he supported the KKK and an EPA head who lobbied against environmental regulations and ultimately sued the EPA.
While this tweet is only the latest in a string of major faux pas, it shows that Donald Trump is unfit to be President of the United States.