Trump, the man is an idiot. GM plant in Lordstown..

[Botany]

... Why can't GM just sell it?

Good God in Butter is he stupid.


1. The plant is "tooled up" to make one or two types of cars. And those cars were not selling. You can't just start making pick up trucks in a factory that was making coups.

B) Trump's trade war and tariffs have raised the cost of the steel that they used to make the cars so they now cost more than other vehicles in the same market.

Mr. Art of the Deal knows nothing about the auto industry or anything else for that matter.

Sorry to but I just heard this on NPR and I'm going nuts.

[smirkymonkey]

1. But, but, but...he knows more than anyone about the automobile industry!

Bloody moron!

[a kennedy]

2. yah, and it's his gut feeling telling him what to do.

Such a dope.

[Botany]

5. I'm from OH and many of us of a certain age understand

... supply chain, tool and die, market demand, and that you just can't build something else in a factory that was making a different product.

Fucking idiot.

[JI7]

3. what do you expect from someone with multiple bankruptcies

[malaise]

4. He's an idiot who thinks he knows everything

which makes him the worst kind of idiot

[Totally Tunsie]

10. In truth, he doesn't know what he doesn't know.

Moron.

[roamer65]

6. It is completely Dump's fault those jobs are gone.

His removing President Obama’s CAFE standards freed up GM to whack lesser selling car models in order to favor gas guzzling SUV’s.

The fault for the Lordstown closure lies completely at the doorstep of 1600 Pennsylvania Av.

[ProudLib72]

7. Sell it to whom?

Maybe the CEO needs to tell the Rump they are just mothballing the plant until he goes to jail, at which time the tariffs come off and they can go back to making those particular cars.

[Botany]

8. "Sell it to whom?"

You know. Sell it to them. Companies would love to buy a really big outdated industrial complex in order to make something there. It is right in "The Art of the Deal."

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. I think saying it is "outdated" is a bit unfair.

Sure it was built in the 60's, but there is nothing stopping GM or any other operator for that matter to re-tool the plant to build almost any vehicle.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are all experiencing the same basic thing, and that is they can't beat the off shore brands in automobile sales. They have pretty much given the car market over to Subaru, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Benz, BMW and VW, all of whom have plants in this country.

They have come to understand the reality that their most profitable and best selling models are pickups and SUV's.

Lordstown has always built either cars or Minivans. They could re-tool it to make pickups, but they already have a couple plants covering all that demand.

I think the best way for the plant to be reactivated would be for VW or someone like them to buy Tesla, then buy Lordstown and start putting out a $20,000 electric unit.

I've hauled cars out of Lordstown. The place is enormous. The whole property has over a mile and a quarter of highway frontage on I-80. And from what I understand, with the line humming at full song, it can produce a car roughly every 60 seconds.

https://goo.gl/maps/gVazzCDZo8P2

[ProudLib72]

17. Well they could sell it to a Saudi prince, right?

Oh wait, Rump, through his lovely intermediary Kushner, had the Saudi prince who bailed him out by buying his stupid yacht imprisoned. Too bad!

[rpannier]

15. Sell it to Trump

He'll put the same knowledge and expertise into cars that he put into universities, airplanes and casinos

[samplegirl]

9. I can't believe how many

workers at GM voted for trump!

[Totally Tunsie]

11. Well...

[Yeehah]

13. How many?

Was there a poll of auto workers after the election?

[rpannier]

16. There were a few stories after the election

Places like Youngstown in Ohio where union members voted for trump at more than 50% because they believed he would bring those factory jobs back to the U.S.
He also received more than half of union members of mine workers (though that didn't surprise me)

on edit: I found one abstract on voting behaviors of union members which I found interesting
42% of white union members voted for Trump, compared to non-union members in the same occupation (47%). Trump got 20% of African-American Union members versus 13% of non-union members in the same occupation

[Yeehah]

18. Thanks.

WTF were they thinking?

[pansypoo53219]

12. bet steel could be an issue. hmm, steel, who made steel more expensive?