Trump administration officials visited San Antonio’s Toyota plant Tuesday to take credit for the automaker’s planned $3.6 billion expansion there — a development that will bring 2,000 new jobs to the city.
The timing’s certainly convenient, considering the president’s dismal poll numbers on his handling of the economy. And U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz weren’t shy about claiming the White House’s unpopular tariff policies prompted the expansion.
“What do tariffs mean to America? 150,000 SUVs and trucks are going to be built right here, right behind this factory,” Lutnick said during an event at the plant, according to the San Antonio Report.
“They’re going to move those 150,000 trucks from Mexico to America, hire Americans … train Americans, and build those trucks right here,” the billionaire investment banker continued. “That is the Trump administration’s trade policy.”
However, in comments to the San Antonio Report’s politics reporter Andrea Drusch, Toyota officials politely called bullshit on Lutnick’s claim.
“At the press conference, Toyota officials in the audience quickly followed up to clarify with points of disagreement,” Drusch wrote.
For example, those company officials “refuted the idea that Lutnick was involved in negotiating their San Antonio expansion,” according to the story. Indeed, the $303 million incentives package put together to lure the project consisted of city, county and state tax incentives — not a federal contribution in sight.
Beyond that, Toyota isn’t downsizing its operations in Mexico, a company spokeswoman told the San Antonio Report. While the automaker did shift Tacoma production north from its Tijuana plant, it’s now analyzing what else it can make at the south-of-the-border facility.
The spokeswoman added that growth at the South Side plant was part of the Japanese company’s long-term process of building vehicles where they’re most likely to be purchased — something unrelated to Trump’s tariffs.
Even so, Labor Secretary Sonderling didn’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.
“President Trump promised to bring back manufacturing, and thanks to Secretary Lutnick out there constantly negotiating these deals, bringing trillions of dollars in investment, we’re able to see a product here, trucks, that are made in America,” he said at the event.
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