President Donald Trump desperately tried to promote his USMCA deal, known mostly as the “new NAFTA,” on Thursday after Toyota announced plans to create hundreds of jobs in the United States.
In addition to his whining about a forthcoming Senate vote on a resolution condemning his national emergency declaration, Trump took time out to praise the foreign automaker for announcing plans to create 600 jobs across five states, which is just a drop in the bucket considering how many jobs Trump’s trade wars have annihilated over the last year.
He even went so far as to credit his USMCA deal.
Congratulations @Toyota! BIG NEWS for U.S. Auto Workers! The USMCA is already fixing the broken NAFTA deal. https://t.co/f9iHprPk5B
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2019
The problem is that the USMCA is not in effect. Canada, Mexico, nor the United States have ratified it yet, which means all three nations are still operating under the original NAFTA, which Trump’s new deal only slightly tweaked anyway.
Another problem is that Toyota is based in Japan, which is not a signatory of NAFTA but made this decision under current NAFTA provisions.
In short, it had nothing to do with Trump or his USMCA.
Twitter users responded by fact-checking and humiliating him into oblivion.
FACT CHECK: The USMCA is not yet in effect because Congress hasn’t approved it. Therefore, it is fixing nothing and Toyota made this decision while still operating under NAFTA. https://t.co/Y1jRPqsO40
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) March 14, 2019
Your periodic reminder that the USMCA has yet to be ratified by any of the three countries and has not taken effect https://t.co/yaqvwLJ6nf
— Megan Cassella (@mmcassella) March 14, 2019
Stop lying!!! The USMCA has not even been approved by Congress yet, so it’s “already” doing nothing. And in reality, it is slight adjustment to NAFTA, with the vast majority of the original provisions kept in place.
— Walter Greenberg (@wegreenberg) March 14, 2019
You Don’t have a USMCA Deal-You consider taking credit for everything as soon as you mention it! You never Close anything????
— J Fogleman (@jfoglemanin) March 14, 2019
The U.S. trade deficit that Trump promised to bring down grew instead, getting 13,6 percent larger. The federal debt rose nearly 3 percent; projected annual deficits worsened.
— Thorsten (@Airvooocht) March 14, 2019
You do know that Toyota isn’t an American, Canadian, or Mexican automaker, don’t you?
— Private Joker, USMC (@Infantry0300) March 14, 2019
This has absolutely NOTHING to do with you or the USMCA. They are adding 600 jobs and GM is shedding 4,000 jobs! You failed to mention that. In fact the press release says they will “Focus on Advancing Electrification,” which you came out against!
— ???? ??????? ?? (@Doug_Bratman) March 14, 2019
Toyota is a Japanese company but wow thanks for the 600 jobs. https://t.co/5YhRBCrBI1
— Delilia O’Malley (@DeliliaOMalley) March 14, 2019
In fact, the trade deficit has reached a record high on Trump’s watch, meaning his trade wars totally backfired.
The 600 jobs also does not replace the thousands of jobs lost because of plant closures by General Motors, Ford and Harley Davidson.
Clearly, NAFTA still works. It’s Trump’s trade wars that are the real problem.
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