President Trump — furious over General Motors’ Monday decision to shut down several US factories and fire more than 14,000 workers — threatened to cut the automaker’s subsidies, including those for electric cars.
“Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Nothing being closed in Mexico & China,” an irate Trump tweeted Tuesday.
“The US saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars,” he added.
The US government currently gives consumers a tax credit up to $7,500 for purchases of eligible electric cars. The credit can knock roughly 20 percent off the Chevy Bolt EV’s starting sticker price of $36,620.
The credit starts to phase out after an automaker sells 200,000 electric cars — a milestone GM is targeted to hit this year and one that Tesla reached in July.
Earlier this month GM, Tesla and Nissan joined forces to create the EV Drive Coalition in an effort to prolong the full tax credit.
Trump’s tweets come one day after GM announced plans to lay off as many as 14,800 workers and idle five plants in North America as it works to cut $6 billion in costs by 2020 shift its focus to electric and self-driving cars.
While Wall Street cheered GM’s cost-saving measures on Monday, it quickly grew fearful of Trump’s threat to cut subsidies and sent GM shares down 2.5 percent in Tuesday trades.
Trump is especially rankled by GM’s proposed layoffs because he promised to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Three of the five closing plants are in Ohio and Michigan — two crucial swing states that were won by Trump.
“General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) — don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s Workers,” Trump’s tweet tirade continued.
Trump’s Twitter tantrum was only a slight surprise.
Moments before the tweets were sent, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters the administration was examining subsidies and “whether they should apply or not.”
“There’s great disappointment that it seems like GM would rather build its electric cars in China rather than the United States,” Kudlow said, while noting he had a “lengthy” conversation with Barra on Monday.
And although Barra told Kudlow some workers could be moved to other plants, he repeatedly called GM’s actions “disappointing.”
“Holiday season layoffs from GM … brutal. Brutal. Very disappointing,” Kudlow said.
GM defended its actions Tuesday, noting that the decision was made to support the company’s “long-term success and maintain and grow American jobs.”
It added that “many” of the affected workers would have the chance to transfer to other GM plants.
“We appreciate the actions this administration has taken on behalf of industry to improve the overall competitiveness of US manufacturing,” GM said.