Obama Audi know by now that Trump knows what he is doing
President Trump and Obama are campaigning hard ahead of the midterm election. Democrats need pick up only three seats to win back the House. The average swing in the past 5 midterms is a gain of 31.2 seats for the party out of power but Obama is sweating this one out.
On Saturday, Obama was in Detroit campaigning for Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, D-Muslim Brotherhood. Obama said, “Abdul hasn’t called these tariffs, quote, unquote, ‘masterful,’ even as they’re killing manufacturing jobs right here in Michigan.”
Also on Saturday, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner at a Trump rally in Georgia announced Audi will build an auto factory in Georgia that will crank out 200,000 premium SUVs a year.
Döllner said, “First, I would like to thank Mr. President for your support and the great opportunity. It’s a fantastic opportunity for Audi, for the Audi team, and for America. We are planning to bring our biggest and most premium SUVs and produce them here in Macon, Georgia. This is a long-term investment because we believe in the American market.”
He cited tariffs as a reason behind the decision. Last year, Trump tariffs cost his company $1.4 billion. The new factory will cost $4.2 billion. In three years it will pay for itself by avoiding tariffs alone.
As the company builds in Georgia, it prepares to close 4 plants in Germany in the early 2030s. Germany does not have a rust belt. It has a Rostgürtel.
Governor Brian Kemp’s office offered the best summary of the situation:
With cutting-edge premium SUVs tailored to North American customers and manufactured locally, Audi aims to unlock significant growth potential in one of the world’s most important premium markets. Audi expects to begin grading in 2027 and construction on the new facility in 2028. Full production is expected in 2031 at an annual capacity of 200,000 units.
The facility will be designed around Audi’s future manufacturing requirements, with a focus on efficiency, flexibility, and the ability to respond to evolving customer needs and market demand.
The Peach State already has Kia Georgia, which operates a major vehicle assembly plant in West Point, Georgia, and the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America near Savannah. They already crank out up to 850,000 cars a year.
Roughly half the cars made in America are owned by foreign companies with the Big Three producing the other half. I’m counting Chrysler as non-foreign.
Obama is right about one thing. Michigan is not gaining jobs because the new factories are in Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. The South has risen again because of right-to-work laws that ended having to pay union trolls to keep a job.
The oddity is American new car production has been 10 million to 12 million a year for the past 60 years. Detroit began with 90% of that production. Today it gets half that.
Tariffs didn’t do that. In fact, Reagan’s tariffs on Japanese motorcycles saved Harley-Davidson. Trump channeled his inner Reagan and is landing trillions in foreign investments in U.S. manufacturing.
Canada slapped a punitive tariff on booze from the USA and boycotted Kentucky bourbon. Fine. Trump retaliated a year later. Canada’s Crown Royal is shuttering a plant and building one here to avoid the tariff.
That’s how it works.
Of course, tariffs were not the only thing Obama got wrong in Detroit.
Living up to his middle name, Barack Hussein Obama defended Iran.
He said, “Now, I want you to think about this Iran war. The original rationale was, well, we’re going to go in there and we’re going to make them bend the knee and give up their nuclear program, their nuclear weapons. Of course, Iran didn’t have nuclear weapons.
“We had curbed their nuclear program because I put in place a deal that everybody acknowledged had kept them from getting nukes. (Applause.) I didn’t have to fire a missile. I engaged in diplomacy.
“Seven months later, and six months after they declared victory—keep in mind, like a month in, they’re all like, ‘Oh, this is the greatest war ever.’ Seven months later, how’s that war going? Our allies and bases have been attacked. American soldiers have been killed. Hundreds of Americans have been wounded. We’ve run down our stock of missiles dangerously low.
“And this is the thing, Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil goes through to get to the world. They’re in a stronger strategic position now than before the war started. That was a decision this administration made, and that is the reason that the price of oil is up, and the price of diesel is up, and the price of just about everything is up.
“And by the way, it’s not over! It’s still going on.”
Stronger Strategic Position!
Brit Hume tweeted, “Because nothing says stronger strategic position like losing your navy and air force and having your vital shipping route blockaded and your economy in free fall.”
I would be remiss if I didn’t pick the low fruit of Obama’s cheesy attempt to give Trump advice on design.
The Big O said, “I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV. Guy’s building a ballroom that’s bigger than the White House. He’s paved over the Rose Garden. Put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn and, and there’s gold everywhere. What’s up with the gold? Everything, more gold! He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory! Just gold everywhere. So, he’s clearly not focused on lowering prices for you.”
This was the Oval Office under Obama. All the warmth of a Chicago snowstorm.
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The room is as beige and dull as he is. Whose idea was it to install a secret door?
As Jimmy Failla pointed out, Obama’s track record on building projects is subpar.
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Obama spent almost as much money on his eyesore as Donald Trump spent building Trump Tower Chicago—originally the second tallest building in America in 2009, now ranked seventh.
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I’ve never been to a Cheesecake Factory. All I know about it was what I saw on the Big Bang Theory TV show. Nice waitresses.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dined at a Cheesecake Factory and told reporters, “This is the man who built the museum that looks like Darth Vader’s tomb. I had a great meal, and I would tell the Martha’s Vineyard set to give it a try.”
This dustup over Trump making the White House great again reflects Obama’s great regret that he made no history as president. In 8 years in the White House, Obama achieve nothing of consequence. As president, his sole accomplishment remains being the first black president.
Trump’s tariffs worked. Instead of exporting cars to the USA, Audi is exporting jobs.
While Trump builds a ballroom and more, Trump now resides in Obama’s head; the more deportations rise, crime falls and the economy builds back, the sadder Obama gets.
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This article first appeared on Don Surber’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission.
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