President Donald Trump used Twitter to personally threaten Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson with higher taxes if the company takes its manufacturing overseas.
Being threatened by the president of the United States for a common and legal business practice is certainly unprecedented. It might even warrant an unprecedented response, like Harley-Davidson’s CEO Matthew Levatich calling the president a moron. But did he
The company said Monday that it would build motorcycles overseas because of the European Union (EU) retaliatory tariffs against the Trump administration’s duties on steel and aluminum from the EU, Mexico and Canada.
The EU raised the tariffs on motorcycles by 25 percent — from 6 percent to 31 percent. Harley-Davidson said the tariffs would “raise the cost of bikes shipped to Europe by as much as $2,200 each and reduce profits by up to $100 million annually,” according to
Market Watch.
In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Trump threatened Harley-Davidson with higher taxes and said the company would endure public backlash.
A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
June 26, 2018
….When I had Harley-Davidson officials over to the White House, I chided them about tariffs in other countries, like India, being too high. Companies are now coming back to America. Harley must know that they won’t be able to sell back into U.S. without paying a big tax!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
June 26, 2018
The same day, a tweet began to widely circulate on Twitter with the following quote attributed to Levatich:
“Our decision to move some of our operations is 100 percent based on President Trumps tariffs. Mr. Trump knows nothing about economics and even less about trade. The man is a moron.”
Harley Davidson CEO Matthew S Levatich says:
“Our decision to move some of our operations is 100% based on President Trumps tariffs. Mr. Trump knows nothing about economics and even less about trade. The man is a moron.”#MAGA @DailyCaller @realDonaldTrump @CNN @GOP pic.twitter.com/Q1wpjUaSx4
— Judy Tinsleman (@tinsleman) June 26, 2018
A Twitter user named Judy Tinselman, using the handle
@tinsleman, posted the tweet. The account was created this month, has 463 followers and only follows one person.
Some social media users have said that the account spreads fake news:
I just spotted an account @tinsleman, created this month, that’s spreading inflammatory fake news against Trump. We’re probably going to see more fake news stoking people’s fears and resentments, for people of all political leanings, as we get closer to the November elections. pic.twitter.com/nSfRRdBdvJ
— Travis View (@travis_view) June 26, 2018
In April, Levatich announced the company’s “Plan B” would involve moving part of the production to Thailand and
closing down the Missouri plant, which was a result of Trump pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
So far, there hasn’t been a confirmed public statement from Levatich on Trump’s tweet.
