Dave Ross: Maybe Donald Trump prefers peaches over the auto industry
Jun 1, 2017, 7:39 AM
President Trump has complained about what he calls our massive trade deficit with Germany, which he has described as “Bad.”
But in Spartanburg County, in the very red state of South Carolina, the feeling is a little different.
“This is one of those cases where the president should have gotten his facts first before he went on attack because it’s just wrong,” said Ted Pitts, the CEO of the state’s Chamber of Commerce.
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Whether or not it’s investing enough in NATO, Germany has invested plenty in South Carolina.
Pitts says the state has attracted 136 German companies so far — including the largest BMW plant in the world.
“We need to build stronger relationships with German companies who have made a huge impact on South Carolina and its people,” Pitts said.
CBS’s David Begnaud met 23-year-old Cody Crandall, who works the BMW assembly line.
Begnaud: “So what do you say to the President who says Germany may be not giving us a good deal?
Crandall: “I think he needs to take a look at Spartanburg, South Carolina and check out the BMW plant here.”
If Trump did take a look, he’d see 9,000 employees making $60,000-plus per year working the line. They turn out 1,400 made-in-America German cars every day.
It wasn’t always’s that way. Once upon a time the big industry was textiles. But when those jobs disappeared, it was County Councilmember David Britt who decided to pitch BMW.
“Without BMW, that facility out there would be a peach field still today and the people of Spartanburg would be hurting badly,” Britt said.
And yet, while he was in Germany, the President was quoted to have said: “The Germans are bad, very bad … See the millions of cars they are selling in the U.S.? Terrible. We will stop this.”
Maybe he prefers peaches. They are tasty. Little fuzzy on the outside though.
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