Michigan Rep. Dan Kildee (D) warned Wednesday that President Trump and Republicans will pay a political price for layoffs at General Motors.
“Now they see the person that they expected that was going to bring back the jobs has also let them down,” Kildee told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.” “I think that he, and the party that he represents, is going to pay a bit of a price for that in Michigan.”
Trump campaigned heavily in industrial Midwest states like Michigan and Wisconsin during the 2016 presidential race, promising to bring jobs back to economically depressed parts of the region.
The strategy helped Trump gain victories in what were historically Democratic strongholds.
However, General Motors announced in November that it was planning to shut down four U.S. plants in Michigan, Ohio and Maryland.
Trump called the move “nasty” and said the company “is not going to be treated well.”
“When the president came to Michigan and came to Ohio, he told people, ‘It’s OK, you’re not going to lose your job,'” Kildee said. “He promised no factory would close. He told the people Youngstown, Ohio, ‘Don’t sell your houses. The factory is going to be open.’ He made those promises.”
“We knew he couldn’t make those promises. I never expected the president would have the authority to reach into General Motors and dictate to them the decisions that they make,” he continued. “But the idea that he would cynically go to these communities and make these hopeful promises, and give them assurances that even he knew he could not keep has caused, I think, even more, cynicism among those people.”
General Motors announced last month it would add 400 jobs and invest $300 million in a Michigan plant to produce a new Chevrolet electric vehicle.
— Julia Manchester
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