https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/trumps-false-auto-industry-claims/Trump’s False Auto Industry Claims
Continuing a yearslong trend, President Donald Trump made false and misleading comments about new auto plants in Michigan, and the industry at large — boasting in recent campaign rallies about accomplishments that aren’t true.
- Trump claimed his entreaties to the prime minister of Japan led to the announcement of “five plants” in Michigan. There have been five new investments — not “plants” — by Japanese car companies since 2017; one of them is a manufacturing facility for fuel cells, not an auto assembly plant.
- The president falsely claimed there hadn’t been a new auto plant built in “40 years.” Volvo and Mercedes-Benz both announced new plants in 2015.
- He claimed that car manufacturing and sales were “record setting.” Neither is at record levels, and annual figures show manufacturing and sales have dropped since 2016 under Trump.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/politifact/article/fact-check-trump-auto-industry-18411684.phpThe claim: As United Auto Workers strike against the leading U.S. automakers, former President Donald Trump took credit for saving the auto industry.
“When I came into office, the auto industry was on its knees, gasping its last breaths after eight long years of (Barack) Obama and (Joe) Biden,” Trump told nonunion autoworkers Sept. 27 at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township, outside Detroit. “It is no exaggeration to state the Trump presidency and the deftly used and applied Trump tariffs and taxes saved the American auto industry from extinction time and time again.”
PolitiFact ruling: False. When Trump took office, “the auto industry was on its knees gasping its last breath.” Trump administration “tariffs and taxes saved the American auto industry from extinction.”
Trump is wrong on both counts. Actions by the Bush and Obama administrations helped revive the auto industry; it was not near death when Trump took office.
The majority of Trump’s trade deals and tariffs hurt the auto industry or had no significant impact during his presidency. In particular, Trump’s 2018 tariffs on steel and aluminum significantly hurt the U.S. auto industry.
