Ohio state treasurer to Trump: Fight 'like hell' for our GM workers
Ohio is “angry” with General Motors after it announced it would shutter its Lordstown plant and State Treasurer Josh Mandel is pleading for President Trump to come to the rescue.
“I hope as soon as possible first, President Trump gets to Youngstown, looks the workers in the eye, and tells them he’s going to fight like hell for their jobs,” Mandel told Stuart Varney on Wednesday. “And then when he leaves Youngstown he should continue on to Detroit, and sit there in the executive’s office in Detroit and be aggressive and do everything he can to save the jobs there [and] in the Youngstown area.”
Trump said Wednesday on Twitter that the U.S. was looking into tariffs on vehicles built overseas, after GM announced earlier in the week that it would slash 15 percent of its salaried workforce in North America and stop production in five North American plants.
“Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!” Trump tweeted.
The president’s tweets follow his comments on Tuesday, in which he criticized the company and its CEO.
“Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO Mary Barra,” he tweeted. “Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!”
Mandel agreed with Trump.
“I think it’s very important to understand that GM came groveling to the taxpayers of America and said ‘come bail us out,’” Mandel said. “The taxpayers obliged, and then now GM has turned it around and killing these jobs of taxpayers in Ohio.”
This exact area is no stranger to hardship. Years ago the working class was destroyed by the steel industry’s demise.
“When you think of gritty, hardworking, just good, honest people, that Lordstown plant, that Youngstown area … that epitomizes the heart of America,” Mandel said.