President Trump Promises Auto CEOs He Will Reduce Taxes and Regulations “Bigly”
President Donald Trump, a throwaway Simpsons joke become horrifyingly real, recently held a meeting with top business leaders to discuss American manufacturing. Among those gathered was Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, Ford CEO Mark Fields, and General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who at one time was considered as a running mate for Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton.
Trump tells US automakers he’ll cut taxes and regulations, says environmentalism is out of control https://t.co/CQt6npXwxR pic.twitter.com/g4qBPeqpAA
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 24, 2017
In the meeting, Trump stressed his desire to increase the number of auto plants in the United States (“and other plants—you’re not being singled out, believe me, Mary, I promise,” he added, turning to Barra).
“It’s happening, it’s happening bigly,” Trump said of his plans to spur US manufacturing.
“We’re bringing manufacturing back to the United States, big league, we’re reducing taxes very substantially and we’re reducing unnecessary regulations,” Trump added, making me wonder again if he’s actually saying “bigly” all the time, “big league,” or both. “We want regulations but we want real regulations that mean something.”
“I think we’ll go down as one of the friendliest countries,” Trump says at one point, apparently acknowledging that, yes, his presidency does signal the collapse of the American empire, but at least history will remember us as friendly.
Also, by “friendly,” Trump means to business, not to the earth, as his plan is to strip environmental regulations that he believes are hurting the industry.
“I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist,” he said, seemingly daring people to laugh. “But, it’s out of control.”
“You’re not supposed to ask questions,” Trump said twice in response to a question from a reporter, then ignored a question about FBI Director James Comey. That appeared to mark the end of the meeting/the fourth estate.
“We had a very constructive and wide-ranging discussion about how we can work together on policies that support a strong and competitive economy and auto industry, one that supports the environment and safety,” Barra said in a statement released by GM. “The US is our home market and we are eager to come together to reinvigorate US manufacturing. We all want a vibrant US manufacturing base that is competitive globally and that grows jobs. It’s good for our employees, our dealers, our suppliers and our customers.”
News Source: The Drive
Patrick Grieve was born in Southwestern Ohio and has lived there all of his life, with the exception of a few years spent getting a Creative Writing degree in Southeastern Ohio. He loves to take road trips, sometimes to places as distant as Northeastern or even Northwestern Ohio. Patrick also enjoys old movies, shopping at thrift stores, going to ballgames, writing about those things, and watching Law & Order reruns. He just watches the original series, though, none of the spin-offs. And also only the ones they made before Jerry Orbach died. Season five was really the peak, in his opinion. See more articles by Patrick.