CLAIM: The Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday evening accused former President Donald Trump of having “lied [to] and abandoned” auto workers in Lordstown, Ohio, after General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra closed the plant in 2019.
VERDICT: False. Trump, as president, lobbied Barra endlessly to keep the Lordstown plant open and, once the plant closed, to reopen it with new investment. Soon after the plant’s closure, Trump began brokering a deal to reopen it.
“In 2018, Trump promised he could stop factories from closing and save Ohio communities. But Trump lied and abandoned Lordstown,” a video at the DNC stated before United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain spoke onstage.
“The GM factory in Lordstown did close, putting thousands of people out of work because Donald Trump doesn’t care about our communities,” the video stated.
As Breitbart News reported in 2019, Barra idled the Lordstown plant — resulting in the immediate layoff of about 1,600 American workers, roughly half the village’s population.
Immediately, Trump started lobbying Barra to reopen the Lordstown plant and scolded her for moving plants to China. A year earlier, before Lordstown closed, Trump threatened to cut off GM’s subsidies after Barra announced plant closures in the United States.
Thanks in part to pressure from Trump, GM sold the plant to Lordstown Motors, which hoped to produce all-electric pickup trucks. Later, Foxconn agreed to buy the plant from Lordstown Motors but stopped making payments in 2023 following a legal battle between the two companies.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.