Trump singles out GM for moving plants to China
President Trump criticized General Motors in a tweet Friday, suggesting the automaker should move plants back to the U.S. from China.
"General Motors, which was once the Giant of Detroit, is now one of the smallest auto manufacturers there," Trump tweeted. "They moved major plants to China, BEFORE I CAME INTO OFFICE. This was done despite the saving help given them by the USA. Now they should start moving back to America again?"
Trump appeared to be responding to a Bloomberg report that GM is now third behind Ford and Fiat Chrysler in the number of union workers it employs in the U.S. That's a first since workers began organizing with United Auto Workers in 1935, according to Bloomberg.
Earlier this month, Trump hit other automakers that agreed to a carbon emissions and fuel mileage deal with California, sidestepping the Environmental Protection Agency. He has been pressuring companies to bring jobs back to the U.S. from overseas throughout his presidency.
A GM spokesperson told FOX Business the company employs nearly 100,000 workers in the U.S. across 27 states. Bloomberg pegged GM's UAW-represented employees at 46,000, behind Ford's 55,000 and Fiat Chrysler's 47,200. The GM rep said its UAW membership has remained stable over the past decade.
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The spokesperson stressed that GM's China operations are self-funding and have brought more than $16 billion in equity income back into the Detroit-based company. GM has announced more than $23 billion in manufacturing investments in the U.S. over the last 10 years, the most of any automaker, according to the company.