Trump Attacks Lordstown plant's union leader David Green - great column by WaPo Paul Waldman
By Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
March 18 at 12:25 PM
Over the weekend, President Trump stepped into a controversy over the closing of a General Motors auto plant in Lordstown, Ohio. And did it in the most Trumpian way possible: over Twitter and laced with his trademark thin-skinned pettiness.
This whole affair demonstrates what Trump seems to believe is an area of considerable vulnerability: the perception that perhaps the U.S. economy is not the paradise of prosperity he would like voters to believe it is.
GM actually announced last November that the plant would close; they say they're shutting down production of the Chevy Cruze, which is built at the Lordstown plant, and shifting to more profitable trucks and SUVs. The plant had already gone from three shifts down to one, resulting in the loss of 3,000 jobs, and was shut down earlier this month.
But as Matthew Gertz noted, what seems to have prompted the president’s renewed attention to the plant was a segment on Fox News, which is of course where all the most thoughtful policymaking begins.
Three of the four tweets Trump has sent on the subject in the last couple of days came within half an hour of Fox airing a segment on the plant closing. But it was this one that really stuck out:
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Democrat UAW Local 1112 President David Green ought to get his act together and produce. G.M. let our Country down, but other much better car companies are coming into the U.S. in droves. I want action on Lordstown fast. Stop complaining and get the job done! 3.8% Unemployment!
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If Trump wants the plant to reopen, why would he attack a union leader who is fighting for just that? The answer lies in the things David Green said when he appeared on Fox, not so much about this plant but about the economy in his area. The host played a clip from a 2017 Trump rally in nearby Youngstown where he told the crowd that all the manufacturing jobs that had been lost were coming back and no one should sell their house, then asked Green if his members were sticking behind Trump. Green’s answer:
You know, I think that’s really just a matter of opinion. Some folks I know have switched gears, right, and thought, you know, when he came here and said all these great things, they were on board with that. And the fact that we’ve seen our Kmart distribution center in Warren close, a hospital close out here, all these brick-and-mortar businesses are closing, and now unallocated status at Lordstown, which will affect really thousands of jobs in the supplier base around it, people are starting to wake up. But part of it’s ego, too, right? I mean, if that’s your guy, people are going to stick with him.
more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/18/why-trump-attacked-local-union-leader-ohio/?utm_term=.41ebffba5d6e
= new reply since forum marked as read
he doesn't like it when people expect him to keep his word - "Don't sell your house - jobs are coming back!"
And now those people are in the downward spiral of the area and he's out there yelling at the union leaders!
More brilliant leadership!
(and on a side note, I just saw on a local newspaper "survey" that 30% of the people answering their poll said that they support IQ45's latest attack on Senator John McCain! MY GAWD, what is WRONG with this country????)
and more people need to hear it! 
without DU to vent my anger at the current regime!
Thank you MyOwnPeace.
Just across the border in western PA - same kind of thing: some industrial problems because of the "brilliant" tariff wars, the shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue, and on the edge of those struggling with trying to make a living in a "post-coal" economy.
The coal one is certainly interesting - our neighbors in West Virginia had tons of people swallow his "I Love Coal" bullshit and now they are riding the same chute down to the bottom that so many of your neighbors are on.
We've got to keep opening the eyes, preaching the truth, and GET OUT THE VOTE!
