Donald Trump did an interview with the Detroit News and revealed both his total ignorance of public policy and that he thinks auto workers make too much money. His alternative to the automakers making cars in other countries is to move factories from state to state to depress wages.





“I don’t like what’s happening,” Trump said in the 15-minute telephone interview. “We’re losing our jobs. We’re losing our wealth. We’re losing our country … Why can’t we do it in this country? It’s an incredible thing that we’re not allowed to make our product.”

You mean like your entire clothing line? Of course we can make our own products, whether it’s cars or men’s suits, but the corporate owners care only about maximizing profits. You could make your suits here; lots of other clothing companies do. They just have to accept slightly lower profits. You’re the one who screws over workers to make a few extra bucks per suit sold.

Trump has repeatedly said that if elected, he would not allow Ford to open a new plant in Mexico. At his campaign announcement speech in New York in June, Trump said he would call Fields to explain the “bad news.” “Let me give you the bad news: Every car, every truck and every part manufactured in this plant that comes across the border, we’re going to charge you a 35 percent tax,” Trump said. “They are going to take away thousands of jobs.” It isn’t clear how Trump could legally single out one automaker for punitive taxes.

Boy, that’s weak language. Let me be more blunt: He could not legally single out one automaker for punitive taxes. In fact, he can’t single out any company or all companies for punitive taxes because they make products in other countries, not without repealing not only NAFTA but GATT and the WTO treaty as well. And that is not going to happen. His own party wouldn’t go along with it. But Trump thinks a president is like a CEO and can just do whatever they want. Because he knows nothing about governing.

He said U.S. automakers could shift production away from Michigan to communities where autoworkers would make less. “You can go to different parts of the United States and then ultimately you’d do full-circle — you’ll come back to Michigan because those guys are going to want their jobs back even if it is less,” Trump said. “We can do the rotation in the United States — it doesn’t have to be in Mexico.” He said that after Michigan “loses a couple of plants — all of sudden you’ll make good deals in your own area.”

Yep, that’s his solution. The automakers could just keep threatening to move factories from one state to another, forcing them to keep lowering wages until they hit the smallest number possible. And remember, he keeps promising to bring back “millions of good-paying jobs” that have gone overseas. By making them not good-paying jobs? Great plan, Donald. By the way, the UAW contracts with the Big Three automakers require that the pay be the same regardless of what state they are in, a provision designed specifically to avoid that. But Trump probably thinks he can void union contracts just like he can treaties once he is elected American’s Holy Orange Emperor.