President Trump had a simple suggestion for General Motors, which is looking to lay off thousands of works and possibly put plants up for closure in order to focus on the production of electronic vehicles: “Make a better car.”
During an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Trump expanded on his irritation with the company’s plan, which could prove to be politically detrimental for him in several key Midwestern states.
“I spoke with Mary Barra, the head of General Motors last night. I said: ‘I heard you’re closing your plant. It’s not going to be closed for long, I hope, Mary, because if it is you’ve got a problem,'” he told WSJ of his conversation. “So she told me: ‘The car’s not selling.’ I said, ‘so maybe you got to make a better car.'”
Trump was particularly frustrated with the prospects of a possible closure of a GM plant in Ohio, according to a transcript of the interview.
“Well, it’s one plant in Ohio. But I love Ohio,” he told WSJ. “And I told them: ‘You’re playing around with the wrong person.’ And Ohio wasn’t properly represented by their Democrat senator, Senator Brown, because he didn’t get the point across. But we will all together get the point across to General Motors. And they better damn well open up a new plant there very quickly.
“You know, they haven’t closed – they’re reallocating it, it’s called,” he continued. “And I said, because their Cruze car isn’t selling, OK? They make a car called Chevy Cruze. And it’s not selling well. So I said: ‘Then put a car that is selling well in there but get it open fast.'”
Read the full interview here.
