General Motors (GM) is exposing their “distinct lack of patriotism” by outsourcing manufacturing to South Korea while planning to close an additional three American plants this year after closing the Lordstown, Ohio plant months ago, America First Policies senior policy adviser Curtis Ellis says.
During an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Tonight, Ellis slammed GM CEO Mary Barra for her recent announcement that a slew of new vehicles will be manufactured in South Korea and imported to the U.S.,while thousands of American GM workers’ jobs hang in the balance.
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“That is called a distinct lack of patriotism,” Ellis said of GM’s plans. It’s called a distinct lack of consideration or gratitude after the U.S. taxpayers that bailed GM out. Here they are abandoning the country that made them great in the first place, allowed them to prosper.”
It’s pretty disgusting. My philosophy is, if you can build it here, you should build it here whether we’re talking about cars or tv sets. That’s what other countries say. [Emphasis added]
We’ve put out the globalist welcome mat for the globalist ‘Kick me’ sign and just let these transnational corporations take advantage of us, take advantage of the American people. This is the greatest consumer market in the world, why are they not building the cars they sell here, here? They said … their rationale for closing down the Lordstown plant was ‘Oh well, that was making small cars and there’s no market for small cars in America. So, we’re going to make them in Mexico where they buy the small cars.’ [Emphasis added]Mary Barra
Now they have the lucrative segment of the market, the SUVs and the crossover SUVs, which they’re clearly selling in America. The Buick Encore is made in China and they’re shipping that to America to ship and sell in American showrooms. This has got to stop. If it takes a 25 percent auto tariff, I’m all for it. [Emphasis added]
For months, President Trump has been advised by informal economic advisers to impose a 25 percent tariff on all auto imports to protect American auto manufacturing workers and penalize multinational corporations like GM for sending their jobs and industry overseas.
Ellis said GM seems to be unaware that the Trump administration has not sworn “allegiance to the global economy” and to the “religion of free trade” as past administrations have done, thus leaving the possibility open for the president to impose an auto tariff.
“Maybe at some point, GM is going to realize that they’re playing chicken with someone who just ripped the steering wheel off and threw it out the window,” Ellis said. “And they want to keep tempting this guy, they’re going to get whacked and they’re going to get hit with 25 percent tariffs … they’re convinced that they’re still dealing with Barack Obama and Steve Rattner, and Austin Goolsbee — people who have no concern for this country and swear allegiance to the global economy and the … religion of free trade.”
“This is not Donald Trump,” Ellis continued. “And the auto tariffs are on hold for the sake of negotiations with Japan and perhaps the European Union.”
As Breitbart News has chronicled, Barra announced last year that GM would soon lay off 14,700 workers in the United States and Canada this year by closing down its Lordstown plant, along with two plants in Michigan and a plant in Maryland. Meanwhile, the corporation’s production in China and Mexico has remained unaffected, much like Barra’s continued annual salary of $22 million.
American manufacturing is vital to the U.S. economy, as every one manufacturing job supports an additional 7.4 American jobs in other industries. Decades of free trade, with deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), have eliminated nearly five million manufacturing jobs from the American economy and resulted in the closure of about 50,000 manufacturing plants.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.