LORDSTOWN FALLOUT | Trump again takes to Twitter to criticize GM

YOUNGSTOWN — President Donald Trump has again taken to Twitter to criticize General Motors over the company’s announcement this week that it will idle five North American plants, including the GM plant in Lordstown that builds the Chevrolet Cruze compact car.

In tweets posted this morning, Trump suggested the U.S. should impose tariffs on imported cars, saying, “The reason that the small truck business in the U.S. is such a go to favorite is that, for many years, Tariffs of 25 percent have been put on small trucks coming into our country. It is called the ‘chicken tax.’ If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here and GM would not be closing their plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland. Get smart Congress. Also, the countries that send us cars have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades. The President has great power on this issue – Because of the GM event, it is being studied now!”

The President also recently shared a tweet from another account that said GM should have to “pay back the $11.2 billion bailout that was funded by the American taxpayer.”

The “chicken tax” to which the President referred is a tariff on light trucks that was imposed in the 1960s.