President Donald Trump, currently involved in a trade war with China, said Friday that General Motors Co, the largest automaker in the United States, should return its operations to the United States.
“General Motors, once the Detroit Giant, is now one of the smallest car manufacturers there,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“They took large plants to China, BEFORE I ASSUMED THE PRESIDENCY. That despite the saving aid that the US gave them. Should they now begin to return to the United States?” The president asked.
Trump seemed to allude to a note from Bloomberg News that claimed that GM’s hourly workforce of 46,000 American workers had lagged behind Fiat-Chrysler and that it was now the smallest among Detroit automakers.
Over the past four decades, GM has drastically reduced the size of its general workforce in the United States, which in 1979 reached almost 620,000.
GM did not comment immediately on Trump’s tweets.
Trump’s anger with GM comes amid the labor talks of the United Auto Workers union with the three big automakers in Detroit before the deadline of September 14.
The president had attacked GM for arming vehicles in Mexico and for finishing production at plants in Michigan, Ohio and Maryland.
