“General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!” Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. | Getty Trump threat to GM: Make the Chevy Cruze in U.S. 'or pay big border tax'

General Motors is the latest target of President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter cannon, with the Manhattan billionaire complaining that the American automaker is manufacturing cars in Mexico and importing them into the U.S. without penalty.

“General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. Speaking later Tuesday morning to CNBC's "Squawk Box," Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said the president-elect likely authored the GM post personally: "I would imagine he sent out that tweet. I've watched him tweet many times."


The president-elect promised throughout the campaign to punish American companies that move jobs abroad by slapping them with a 35 percent tax on imported goods. He also railed against free trade agreements and was especially critical of NAFTA, which he said allowed companies to easily move jobs from the U.S. to Mexico. He would regularly claim in stump speeches that an unnamed factory-building friend of his referred to manufacturing in Mexico as “the eighth wonder of the world.”

Trump’s pledge to rebuild America’s base of manufacturing jobs appears to have played at least some role in his Election Day victory. The real estate mogul won narrow victories in Democrat-leaning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all states whose economies have been especially hard hit by the departure of manufacturing jobs.

General Motors did not immediately return a request from POLITICO for a comment, but in a statement provided to CNBC, the automaker said that it makes all of its Chevrolet Cruze sedans in Lordstown, Ohio. The company said it manufactures some of the Cruze's hatchback models in Mexico, mostly for international markets but a "small number" for import back into the U.S. as well.

Later on Tuesday morning, another automaker that has been on the receiving end of Trump’s ire, Ford Motors, made an announcement that's likely to please the president-elect: It will invest $700 million in a Michigan plant and cancel previous plans to build a new one in Mexico.

Ford CEO Mark Fields told CNN that the investment was not the result of any “deal” with Trump, although he said he talked to the president-elect and Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Tuesday morning.

“We didn't cut a deal with Trump. We did it for our business,” Fields told CNN.

Still, Fields described the move as a “vote of confidence” in the economy, and Conway celebrated the announcement. “#AmericaFirst,” she tweeted.

Madeline Conway contributed reporting.