Trump Threatens To End GM Subsidies After Hearing About Cutbacks

President Trump has threatened to cut off all federal subsidies to General Motors because of its planned massive cutbacks in the U.S.

In usual Trump fashion, he took to Twitter the day after the GM announcement saying it would shut five plants and slash 14,000 jobs in North America. Many of the job cuts would affect the Midwest, the politically crucial region where the president promised a manufacturing rebirth.

“Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland” while sparing plants in Mexico & China, Trump tweeted, adding: “The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!”

It’s not clear precisely what action against GM might be taken, or when, and there are questions about whether the president has the authority to act without congressional approval. Trump has promised to return manufacturing jobs to the United States, particularly the Midwest. At a rally last summer, Trump told people not to sell their homes because the jobs are “all coming back.”

Many of the workers who will lose jobs if the plants close could transfer to another GM factory where production is being increased, spokesman Patrick Morrissey said. For instance, GM plans to add hundreds of workers at its pickup truck assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, Morrissey said. Workers also will be added at an SUV factory in Arlington, Texas. But those expansions aren’t enough to accommodate all of the roughly 3,300 U.S. factory workers who could lose their jobs.

GM said it has invested more than $22 billion in U.S. operations since 2009 when it exited bankruptcy protection. GM’s attempt to close the factories still has to be negotiated with the United Auto Workers union. The reductions could amount to as much as 8 percent of GM’s global workforce of 180,000 employees.