President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised German automaker Volkswagen for its announcement this week that it will infuse $800 million into its Chattanooga, Tenn., plant to build electric cars.

The project is expected to bring 1,000 new jobs to the area, according to The Tennessean, amid a growing consciousness about auto emissions that has propelled the electric car market.


“Congratulations to Chattanooga and Tennessee on a job well done,” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “A big win!”

Trump has frequently focused on boosting the auto industry in the U.S. since he entered office, pushing for higher standards in a renegotiated NAFTA deal in an effort to boost domestic production of auto parts and threatening steep tariffs on countries like Germany over automotive imports.

The president has also talked about negotiating much lower Chinese tariffs on American car imports amid a larger trade war with China. But Trump's decision to levy steel and aluminum tariffs has also been cited by some carmakers as having a negative impact on their U.S. production.

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As part of his “America First” agenda, Trump has sought to return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. by pushing deregulation and protectionist trade policies, but also by making use of his platform. He frequently praises auto manufacturers for announcing new plants or investments within the U.S. and publicly lambasts manufacturers for shuttering plants or moving them out of the country.


Last year, when GM for announced the closure of four plants in the midwest, citing in part a shift toward electric vehicles, Trump ripped CEO Mary Barra as well as the trend toward electric cars, which he threatened to yank has subsidies for. The move toward electric cars also threatens the president's efforts to bolster the fossil fuel industry.

“All-electric is not going to work,” Trump said at the time. “It’s wonderful to have it as a percentage of your cars, but going into this model that she’s doing I think is a mistake.”

Despite the president’s misgivings about electric cars, the industry is undoubtedly heading in that direction. Trump’s tweet came on the same morning that Volkswagen and Ford rolled out plans to team up on commercial vehicle development and potentially expand into joint production of electric and self-driving cars at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Joshua Posaner contributed to this report.

