President Donald Trump on Thursday attempted to paint General Motors’ plant closures as an anomaly, claiming auto companies are “pouring into the U.S.” and BMW is building “a major new plant.”
Problem is, that’s not quite true.
BMW Group Chairman and CEO Harald Krueger on Tuesday told reporters that his company could consider a second plant in the U.S. It currently runs an assembly plant in South Carolina, and will officially open a factory in Mexico next year.
“We have talked for the past few years about an engine plant to support our North American production and sales, and now with increasing production levels in North America, we are again investigating this option,” said Krueger.
Asked if any plans had been finalized, a BMW spokesman confirmed for HuffPost on Thursday that it is still considering building an engine plant in the U.S.
As far as Trump’s claim that automakers are pouring into the country, the only U.S. plant that has been announced during his administration so far has been one by Toyota-Mazda in Alabama. In his State of the Union speech he celebrated it as the first in decades, although General Motors, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Volkswagen built plants in the U.S. in recent years, USA Today reported.
Fiat Chrysler announced in January of this year that it would move production of certain trucks from Mexico to an existing plant in Warren, Michigan. Trump at the time of that announcement said the automaker was moving its plant from Mexico to Michigan, which wasn’t quite the case.