Sears paid executives but didn’t give workers severance pay

Let me get this straight: Sears has $25 million laying around to pay out executives who ran the company into the ground, but doesn't have any money to give the thousands of workers they laid off severance pay? https://t.co/nA0yXDmyS5

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 16, 2018

Economic impact of a government shutdown

A government shutdown costs the U.S. economy about $2 billion a day in lost output.

That's on you @realDonaldTrump.https://t.co/6EUCIYda0x

— Nate Lerner (@NathanLerner) December 12, 2018

Trump doesn’t care about the debt

Remember, he has filed bankruptcy several times. Just run up debt and get out of it.

The country can’t do what he did in business.

Kind of ironic that we're holding a funeral today for the last Republican president to actually care about the debt. https://t.co/llKyraptHH

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) December 5, 2018

Trump’s trade war has hurt stock prices

Nobody knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t tell the truth. The market hates uncertainty. Sad!

"Trump's trade war has cost the S&P 10% this year, JP Morgan estimates" https://t.co/CIuxlaTnPk

— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) December 7, 2018

Trump’s lack of credibility on China hurts the stock market

Trump lied about North Korea – they haven’t gotten rid of their nuclear weapons.

Trump lied about China – there is no deal.

By now, people who are not part of the Trump cult understand he lies and confuses issues. Since we don’t know what’s going on with China, the market tanked.

Trump said China had agreed to end auto tariffs. They haven't. The president and his administration have rattled markets — and at times each other — with muddled and contradicted messaging since returning home, while Trump trumpets success. Our latest: https://t.co/WR0eNK0pGf

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) December 5, 2018

1) Trump: China is removing auto tariffs.
2) Kudlow: Hopefully, but no agreement.
3) China: <crickets>
4) WH: 90-day clock starts Dec 1
5) Kudlow: Jan 1
6) WH: ahem, Dec 1
7) Toomey: USMCA won't pass Congress.
8) Lighthizer has to sort it all out.
https://t.co/zk4pG0Uge0

— Damian Paletta (@damianpaletta) December 4, 2018

The Dow Jones average is flat since the tax bill was signed

The Dow is at 24,872 as I write this. The tax cut helped the wealthy and ran up the debt. It didn’t help 401ks held by working Americans.

The stock market on the day Trump signed the tax bill: 24,754

The stock market today, nearly a year later: 24,480.

That's a decrease of 1.1% since the tax bill was signed. And in the meantime, the US debt is exploding at an even more unsustainable rate.

— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) December 6, 2018

What’s going on with Trump and China?

Trump and his team can’t get their story straight. Who know what the truth is. I’m not saying Trump lied. I’m saying he may not know enough about the issues to have a coherent discussion and policy.

And even if there were a deal on autos, it would cut tariffs for all exporters to China, meaning most of the benefits would not go to the US. This is not optional: Most Favored Nation status is integral to the WTO 3/ https://t.co/Q3XB5K6za1

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 4, 2018

Fast! Trump has gone from "it's an incredible deal" to "seeing whether or not a REAL deal with China is actually possible," and "China will be buying massive amounts of product from us, including agricultural," to "China is supposed to start buying Agricultural product." pic.twitter.com/WPa8mSYsjc

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 4, 2018

Trump left his top advisers scrambling to explain a trade deal he claimed he’d struck with China to reduce tariffs on U.S. cars exported to the country — an agreement that doesn’t exist on paper and hasn’t been confirmed in Beijing.https://t.co/m7ig2H5scX

— Kevin Whitelaw (@KevinWhitelaw1) December 3, 2018

Trump declared on Twitter that China “has agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into China from the U.S.” His top economic advisors are already disputing that claim. https://t.co/eR7VQYsDrd

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 3, 2018

Today in trade: Trump says China is cutting car tariffs, Navarro doesn’t know what he’s talking about, Kudlow gets China’s deadline off by a month, Lighthizer takes the reins from Mnuchin. https://t.co/Zsh4Dd2bxO

— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) December 4, 2018

1) Trump: China is removing auto tariffs.
2) Kudlow: Hopefully, but no agreement.
3) China: <crickets>
4) WH: 90-day clock starts Dec 1
5) Kudlow: Jan 1
6) WH: ahem, Dec 1
7) Toomey: USMCA won't pass Congress.
8) Lighthizer has to sort it all out.
https://t.co/zk4pG0Uge0

— Damian Paletta (@damianpaletta) December 4, 2018

Massive staff reductions at General Motors

Looks like they were partly caused by Trump’s tariffs. Now he is threatening GM.

Is Trump to blame for GM’s 15,000 layoffs? https://t.co/stjSGKAeMf pic.twitter.com/dp50dIbRxG

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) November 26, 2018

from the article:

GM may have been forced to restructure to accommodate a changing market regardless of whether Trump instituted tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, but the effect these tariffs — and the threat of potential tariffs on all imported automobiles — exacerbated the pressure to do so. GM announced on Monday that Trump’s tariffs have cost the company $1 billion, and that while they are not directly responsible for the layoffs, they are among the “headwinds,” as Barra put it on a conference call, that the company is facing as it struggles to remain profitable.

Donald Trump never cared about the men and women who build cars in places like Michigan and Ohio. He lied to them. He made promises he could not keep. Now, the plants are closing and the workers are looking at the prospect of a future without work. ⁦ https://t.co/vsTlaflgEv

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) November 26, 2018

“If I’m elected you won’t lose one plant, you’ll have plants coming into this country, you’re going to have jobs again, you won’t lose one plant, I promise you that.”
— Donald Trump addressing MI autoworkers 2016

5 plants to close, 14K layoffs
— GM 2018 https://t.co/jZ779dXdCg

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) November 26, 2018

In June, General Motors warned of the "fallout within the auto industry" from the @realDonaldTrump tariffs.

GM also said the tariffs "risked 'undermining GM’s competitiveness against foreign auto producers by erecting broad brush trade barriers that increase our global costs.'” https://t.co/5ULO3Ipbau

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) November 26, 2018

How the GM layoffs rank among the auto industry’s biggest job cuts: https://t.co/wJQd29jrHD pic.twitter.com/uxP4URS0gf

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) November 26, 2018

President Trump's economic moves fail to prevent GM closures https://t.co/SJBQfCP1n3 pic.twitter.com/a93EqHEGFY

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 27, 2018

Trump blasts GM for plans to close Ohio factory: “You’re playing around with the wrong person” https://t.co/tp4FxUlYu9 pic.twitter.com/GLpeTci5tu

— The Hill (@thehill) November 26, 2018

The GM layoffs are another victory for capital over laborhttps://t.co/xOMd23XBgm pic.twitter.com/ojDKqXjnpY

— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) November 26, 2018

General Motors plans to halt production at 3 assembly plants in Canada, Ohio, and Michigan by not allocating new products, Reuters reports.

Cost pressures have increased. GM also has said Trump-imposed tariffs on imported steel have cost it $1 billion.https://t.co/h2Bzl0DlAM

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 26, 2018

Remember the conservative freakout about Obama's "gangster government" for bailing out GM? Since then, Republicans elected an almost literal mob boss. Today he threatened GM not to screw up a swing state for him: https://t.co/IJVx5PVpVi

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) November 26, 2018

General Motors plans to halt production at 3 assembly plants in Canada, Ohio, and Michigan by not allocating new products, Reuters reports.

Cost pressures have increased. GM also has said Trump-imposed tariffs on imported steel have cost it $1 billion.https://t.co/h2Bzl0DlAM

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 26, 2018

Trump’s tariffs are causing Ford layoffs

24,000 Ford workers could lose their jobs thanks to Trump’s tariffs. They are also affecting other auto companies and their workers.

How many more tens of thousands of US auto workers must lose their jobs over @realDonaldTrump's stupid tariffs? Ford has already lost 24,000. New auto tariffs threaten tens of thousands more workers in six states that he won in 2016. Forget about 2020. https://t.co/KghSL1icWn

— So-called Dave (@DavidWetherell) November 14, 2018

Trump tariff, China trade war: Ford, BMW, automakers feeling pain https://t.co/NJw39QTkpZ

— Gregory Dale Holland (@GregDHolland) November 24, 2018

GM is offering buyouts and talking layoffs. The company should also be worrying about morale, experts say. https://t.co/UKXcgljtYD pic.twitter.com/wqXynPbpnE

— The Detroit News (@detroitnews) November 21, 2018

happy tax cut day GM workers https://t.co/gSv5JxdDX7

— jenifer daniels 🧘🏾‍♀️ (@jentrification) November 20, 2018

GM Offers Buyouts to 18,000 Workers, Months After Warning About Layoffs Over Trump's Tariffs https://t.co/6IXHjEu4gg

— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) November 1, 2018

Tariffs on auto imports will hurt our workforce here in Alabama, plain and simple. I'm calling on the Trump Administration to reconsider before they drive jobs out of our state. https://t.co/p135RKu1sE

— Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@RepTerriSewell) November 19, 2018