Trump vs. GM

General Motors recently announced that they will be cutting their North American workforce by 15% by the end of next year. Both white-collar and blue-collar workers will be affected. They will also discontinue six car models.

This was in response to several changes affecting the auto industry. They compete with companies that have substantially lower labor costs. People aren’t buying nearly as many sedans as they used to. They need to prepare for a future with electric cars and driverless cars. Finally, they are being hurt by President Trump’s trade war with China. This hits GM particularly hard since they sell a lot of cars in China, including 80% of the Buicks sold worldwide.

Automakers have a long history of not making changes until they are in trouble. I applaud GM for being proactive.

President Trump sees it differently. He said he “was very tough” with the GM CEO and warned that they “were playing around with the wrong person”. If he really wanted to save those jobs, he could have arranged a meeting. All this hostility has accomplished is to feed his gargantuan ego.

This gives out the wrong message. Who would want to build a plant here and face the wrath of the most powerful person in the world if they ever have to close it.
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Trump, the Republican Party and the country would be better off if he could gain some self-control. After nearly two years in office, he shows absolutely no signs of changing.
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