The last time Donald Trump was president, he travelled to Youngstown, Ohio, among the most depressed of America’s rust belt cities, and promised voters the impossible.
The high-paying steel, railroad and car industry jobs that once made Youngstown a hard-living, hard-drinking blue-collar boom town were coming back, he said. “Don’t move. Don’t sell your house,” he crowed to a rapturous crowd in 2017. “We’re going to fill up those factories – or rip ”em down and build brand new ones”.
None of that happened. Indeed, within 18 months, General Motors (GM) announced that it was suspending operations at its one remaining manufacturing plant outside Youngstown, throwing 5,000 jobs into jeopardy in a community with little else to cling to. Trump’s reaction was to say the closure didn’t matter, because the jobs would be replaced “in, like, two minutes”.
That, too, did not happen. People moved away, marriages broke down, depression soared and, locals say, a handful of people took their own lives.
“The Democrats and the Republicans are all a den of crooks. Only one side lies about being crooks, and one doesn’t. If you’re going to be a crook, I’d rather know it than be lied to.”
This is the state of the American electorate. Just a total lack of critical thinking.
If you’re going to be a crook, I’d rather know it than be lied to.
Of all dumb reasons for voting for Trump, this one takes the cake.
These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.
Sucks. Lives the reality that Trump very specifically targets this place to rebuild and it goes under. Also believes the fake reality that somehow the democrats are worse.
Look, I know things are hard, but that’s a really narrow take. At the very very least the democrats would not tear down what social services you could still claim. This is like shooting yourself in the foot, and being like “fuck that hurt, maybe it will be better next time?” Instead of “oh shit, better not shoot myself in the foot again”.
I rather shoot myself in the foot so that I know for certain my foot will be horrifically mutilated.
Or, “maybe if I shoot myself in the other foot, it’ll be better this time”
The same foot again.
Only one side lies about being crooks, and one doesn’t.
And which is which? I can’t tell which the speaker wants me to think. I think that says more about the speaker than it does about me. I can’t tell if they’re trying to shoot themselves in the foot on purpose.
kagis
It sounds like he’s probably referring to the Lordstown Motors auto plant that closed.
Apparently, some of the facility is now doing EV-related work.
It sounds like originally, there were about 4,500 people, and now about half that work at the new factory, and most of the rest were relocated by GM.
Most of the 4,500 workers who lost their jobs last year, and in two earlier waves of layoffs since 2017, have started over in GM plants in unfamiliar towns hundreds of miles away.
https://atlaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Case-Study-Ultium-Cells-Ohio-Final.pdf
Ultium Cells Ohio is a $2.6 billion joint venture between General Motors (GM) and LG Energy Solution (LGES). The companies announced their plans for the facility in December 2019 and, as of June 2024, there are nearly 2,200 hourly and salaried workers on site, surpassing Ultium’s employment expectations when they first announced the facility.
GM relocated 1,300 hourly employees [4]. This was on top of shift cuts in 2016 and 2018 that impacted 1,250 and 1,500 employees respectively [5]
So while this is probably quite bad advice aimed at scoring political points:
“They’re all coming back!” Trump told a cheering crowd at a rally in nearby Youngstown in 2017.
“Don’t move! Don’t sell your house!” he said.
Assuming that Trump’s campaign had any idea that this would happen at the time he was speaking – and apparently there was federal subsidy (albeit from the Biden-era IRA) involved:
Support from the federal government, including a $2.5 billion loan from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office and tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, have been and will be essential to the construction and growth of Ultium Cells facilities in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan.
…that might be uncharacteristically accurate for Trump in that new jobs equal to maybe half the number of jobs that exited had been there (though not necessarily the same workers or skillset, and personally, I wouldn’t have stayed around a closed auto plant for five years hoping that someone willing to hire me would show up and ramp up hiring and want to hire me).
