President Trump on Wednesday encouraged iconic motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson not to relocate part of its production outside of the U.S., and warned that Americans “won’t forget” the decision if the company proceeds as planned.
“Harley-Davidson should stay 100% in America, with the people that got you your success. I’ve done so much for you, and then this,” Trump complained in a tweet. “Other companies are coming back where they belong!”
He added: “We won’t forget, and neither will your customers or your now very HAPPY competitors!”
Harley-Davidson should stay 100% in America, with the people that got you your success. I’ve done so much for you, and then this. Other companies are coming back where they belong! We won’t forget, and neither will your customers or your now very HAPPY competitors!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018
Trump first unloaded on Harley-Davidson in a series of tweets on Tuesday, a day after the company announced it would be moving some of its production capacity overseas to avoid the European Union’s 31 percent tariff on imported bikes. The tariff was a retaliatory measure taken by foreign leaders after Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States.
“If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit!” the president tweeted Tuesday, adding that motorcycle company should prepare to “be taxed like never before!”
The move by Harley-Davidson comes just over a year after several of its executives visited Trump at the White House for an event that aimed to celebrate companies that have stuck to domestic production.
“Harley-Davidson is a true American icon, one of the greats,” Trump said at the time. “I think you’re going to even expand and there’s a lot of spirit right now in the country that you weren’t having so much in the last couple of months.”
