"Many plants are being built right now - auto plants - in Michigan, just like I said. They're being built in Ohio, they're being built in South Carolina, North Carolina, they're being built all over and expanded at a level that we've never seen before. Cause I said to Japan, Germany and others, 'Sorry, you've got to come here and build plants, otherwise we're going to have to make it very tough on you with tariffs.' " - President Donald Trump, remarks on Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2020
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We have documented before the president's "swing-state spin," in which he claims he has achieved great economic success for states that, coincidentally, are necessary for him to achieve an electoral college victory.
According to our database of Trump's false and misleading claims, the president has mentioned Michigan in 120 false claims, Ohio in 94 claims and North Carolina in 68 claims. South Carolina is not a swing state, but it may have a competitive Senate race, so that may be why it slipped into his spiel on Labor Day
It's been a while since we have reviewed these claims in a full fact check. So has anything happened to make Trump's falsehoods any more true?
Essentially, Trump says that under his watch, auto assembly plants have been added at an unprecedented rate in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and possibly other states - "they're being built all over and expanded at a level that we've never seen before." He attributes this to his jawboning of countries such as Japan and Germany - and his threat of higher tariffs.
So we checked in with the experts at the Center for Automotive Research, a group that assiduously tracks this information.
No surprise. Trump is making stuff up.
Kristin Dziczek, vice president at CAR, said there have been four new auto assembly plants...