Trump was supposed to be participating in a roundtable about farming in Pennsylvania, but he did himself no favors by threatening American company John Deere.
Trump spent much of his time prattling on about China, and touting a trade deal that was never followed though on:
Trump claims he made a $50 billion deal for China to buy farm products.
China never bought the products over the two years when Trump was president. Trump exaggerated the impact of the deal for farmers.Fact check: https://t.co/hSHWE5ubpY pic.twitter.com/ogR0MCHvDy
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 23, 2024
The big moment came when Trump all on his own attacked John Deere:
Unprovoked In Pennsylvania, Trump attacks John Deere, “I’m notifying John Deere right now. If you do that, we’re putting a 200% tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States. So that if I win, John Deere is going to be paying a 200%.” pic.twitter.com/sPbm4MWFSR
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 23, 2024
Trump said:
Behind me. John Deere tractors. I know a lot about John Deere. I love the company, but as you know, they’ve announced, uh, a few days ago that they’re going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico. I’m just notifying John Deere right now. If you do that, we’re putting a 200% tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States. So that if I win, John Deere is going to be paying a 200% they haven’t started it yet. Maybe they haven’t even made the final decision yet. But I think they have, uh, John Deere is going to and anybody else that does this because it’s hurting our farmers, it’s hurting our manufacturing. And if you do that, they have a 200% tariff put on the product that you make in Mexico right across the border.
They think they’re gonna make product cheaper in Mexico and then sell it in for the same price as they did before. Make a lot of money by getting rid of our labor and our jobs and, and really a great name because John Deere is a great name. I buy a lot of John Deere tremendous. I’m one of their big customers. I buy a lot of John Deere product as a private person.
But if they’re going to do that, we’re going to put a 200% tariff on everything that they want to send back into the United States, which means one of two things, our country is gonna make a lot of money or they’re not gonna build, they’re not gonna open and, or they’re going to sell it to another country, they’re entitled to do that. If they want to build in the country and the United States, there’s no tariff. You can go ahead and you can build in any one of the 50 states, you can go ahead. But if they don’t want to do that, we’re going to put a 200% tariff on John Deere and you know what’s gonna happen. They’re going to announce very shortly if they think I’m gonna win or if I do win, they’re going to announce that they’re not going to build in Mexico.
John Deere Is Already Manufacturing Products Outside The United States
A fact check from KWQC about John Deere moving to Mexico stated:
John Deere is an international company with factories, facilities and offices in more than 30 countries and 40,000 employees around the globe.
They’re not moving jobs from the Quad Cities to another plant – but they are building a new facility in Mexico that will be ready in 2026.
The plant will make mid-frame skid steer loaders and compact trackloaders. Those machines are made at Dubuque Works, and some jobs will be relocated to Mexico. However, the number of jobs has not been released.
Trump Is Threatening American Companies
John Deere is building a new plant. The company already has international plants and offices. Donald Trump wants to be the President Of The United States, but instead of protecting American companies, Trump is threatening them.
Trump still doesn’t understand that John Deere won’t be paying the tariff. The tariff will be paid by the consumers that purchase John Deere products.
The farmers may not have realized it, but Donald Trump wasn’t just threatening John Deere, he was also threatening their economic survival.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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