Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon blasted Toyota Motor Corporation over the company’s plans to build a new factory in Mexico, which were announced in April.
Trump has previously called out American companies for plans to move factory jobs abroad, but Toyota is based in Japan, not the United States.
Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017
Trump wrote that Toyota plans to build a new plant in Baja. However, the company plans to expand production at an existing Baja plant and announced the construction of a new car plant in Guanajuato in April.
The President-elect’s tweet lashing out at the Japanese company follows a Thursday report in the Wall Street Journal noting that the company’s president would like to work with Trump.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda said that his company is “aligned with the incoming administration in that it wants to be a good corporate citizen and grow employment in countries where it operates plants.” Toyoda said he will keep track of Trump’s policies on trade, according to the report.
So Trump is now threatening a non-U.S. based company for engaging in international trade. Right.
This is what you call ‘threat and humiliation’ diplomacy by an as-yet-not-sworn-in official.
A dangerous game Rump is playing.
I would treat this as a shot across America’s bow…
EDIT TO ADD: I wonder how this is playing with any American auto dealers / parts makers of Toyota cars.
This is what happens when you think you are going to become President of the World. Trump has no idea how international trade works. Of course, Trump has no idea how much of anything works. He just knows how he expects it to work. Apparently, no one is willing to tell him.
I guess Trump is doing the Titanic thing…‘I’m KING OF THE WORLD!!!’