Trump: General Motors should "start coming back to America"

Reuters

• President Donald Trump again targeted General Motors on Friday morning, calling on the US automaker to abandon production from China.
• The press arrived a few days before the planned escalation between the United States and China, wrestling with a trade dispute for more than a year.
• The president ordered US private companies to immediately find alternative markets to China in a burst of tweets last week, but the command had no legislative leverage.
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President Donald Trump again targeted General Motors on Friday morning, calling on the US automaker to abandon production from China.

"General Motors, which was once the giant of Detroit, is now one of the smallest automakers in the country", the president wrote on Twitter. "They moved large factories to China, BEFORE I COME TO OFFICE, it was done in spite of the saving help that the United States brought them in. Now, they should start coming back to America again?"

General Motors did not immediately respond to an email requesting a comment.

The press arrived a few days before the planned escalation between the United States and China, which have been bogged down in a trade dispute for more than a year. Both parties raised their prices on their respective products last Friday and announced their intention to extend them further on December 1 and 15.

The Detroit-based automaker has long been criticized by Trump, whose "America First" initiative was based on promises to create jobs in the United States. The president ordered US private companies to immediately find alternative markets to China in a burst of tweets last week, but the command had no legislative leverage.

General Motors was once the country's largest private employer, but production began to move more and more in Mexico and China as a result of the financial crisis. Trump again criticized the builder after the closing announcements in the key states for his bid for reelection in 2020.

In November, General Motors announced plans to idle a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, as part of a move that is expected to cost 14,000 jobs. The other restructuring plans announced this year are expected to affect factories throughout Michigan, which were very supportive of Trump in 2016, following promises of support to the auto industry.

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