President Donald Trump gave a plug to Harley-Davidson motorcycles during an address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, and he used the company as a metaphor for the obstacles faced by American companies on the global market.
“I just met with officials and workers from a great American company, Harley-Davidson. In fact, they proudly displayed five of their magnificent motorcycles, made in the USA, on the front lawn of the White House,” Trump said, mentioning off-prompter that “and they wanted me to ride one, and I said ‘No thank you.’”
Trump related what he said the company’s executives had told him about global tax rates.
“At our meeting, I asked them, how are you doing, how is business? They said that it’s good,” he continued. “I asked them further how they are doing with other countries, mainly international sales. They told me – without even complaining because they have been mistreated for so long that they have become used to it – that it is very hard to do business with other countries because they tax our goods at such a high rate. They said that in one case another country taxed their motorcycles at 100 percent.”
“They weren’t even asking for change. But I am.”
“I believe strongly in free trade but it also has to be fair trade,” Trump said. “The first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, warned that the ‘abandonment of the protective policy by the American Government will produce want and ruin among our people.’ Lincoln was right – and it is time we heeded his words.”
