President Trump will lean on CEOs from General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Tuesday to build cars in the US — and to employ more American workers.
“Will be meeting at 9:00 with top automobile executives concerning jobs in America,” Trump said in a Tuesday morning tweet ahead of his meeting. “I want new plants to be built here for cars sold here!”
Trump has made an issue of US companies manufacturing their goods elsewhere and bringing them back for resale. He’s even threatened to slap car manufacturers with a 35 percent tariff for the practice.
“If you want to build cars in the world, then I wish you all the best. You can build cars for the United States, but for every car that comes to the USA, you will pay 35 percent tax,” Trump told the German paper Bild in an interview last week.
“I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 percent tax, then you can forget that,” he added.
Trump is also slated to sign more executive orders Tuesday, and plans to talk with the prime minister of India and hold meetings with his chief of staff, the CIA director, Senate leaders and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).