Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Thursday that President Trump told him he’s prepared to support legislation to tweak his tax cut bill that passed last year in order to help GM, which has said it will close down manufacturing plants and lay off workers.
Brown said he talked to Trump on Wednesday about getting rid of a tax break in the law that incentivizes U.S. companies to move overseas, which he said the president agreed was a bad policy.
“He wasn’t really aware of that, but he said he would help,” Brown said on CNN. He said Trump agreed to back a bill from Brown that would end that tax break.
“We’re gonna work on this and I’m gonna take the president at his word,” Brown said. “He doesn’t always do what he says, but he promised this, and we’re going to move forward and hope we can get this through Congress.”
Ohio @SenSherrodBrown spoke to President Trump last night about the GM cuts.
“He said he wants to fix it, I take him at his word. I’m working with his trade representative and we’re going to go to town on it in the next few weeks.” https://t.co/vJfBbqfbLB pic.twitter.com/h3HyBzspfi
— New Day (@NewDay) November 29, 2018
GM announced Monday that it would be laying off 15 percent of its salaried workforce, and it said it would be stopping production in several North American plants to reduce costs. One of the GM plants being shuttered is in Warren, Ohio, and another in Detroit, Mich.
During his campaign, Trump promised that he would bring manufacturing and industry jobs back to America, especially to communities that had been devastated by factory closures.
GM’s announcement could negatively affect Trump going into the 2020 presidential campaign.
