Yesterday as I read the story of the displaced employee I wondered why he never considered buying the car his plant produced, the Cruze? According to the company, it was low sales that caused the plant to close, but he still wanted that macho truck. Until everyone starts to think a bit further down the road than the immediate issue, we'll continue to go in circles chasing our tails.
13
Wow. Barra's as cynical and duplicitous as Trump. The lies and the misrepresentations proliferate. And, as their futures crumble in his big, capable hands, the white working class purrs, thrilled to distraction with Trump's broadsides against the people they hate.
"The best lack all conviction/While the worst are full of passionate intensity." Yeats, "The Second Coming" (1921)
21
Trump lies, GM CEO spins & another hedge fund financed startup with little chance for success promises undeliverable results. What could be better? Well GM could keep work here instead of moving it to Mexico so the already wealthy investor class could become even more wealthy. Trump could do something more competent that tweet & exaggerate, like not undermine the future of the startup seeking to reinvent Lordstown with bad federal policy. As far as hedge fund managers, what they can do isn’t printable in the comments.
16
@John Chastain don't forget bailed out GM to the tune of $billion$ of the taxpayers hard earned $. GM certainly has. Our present president is so clueless, it's a crime.
7
Who remembers Foxconn? It is truly astounding that Republican voters fall for the lies of their politicians over and over and over and over again.
28
I feel bad for Lordstown but I also ask myself why Republicans continue to believe Donald Trump, a consistent world class liar. Obama's economy is chugging along, despite the damaging moves Trump has taken; that may not last. Other than (Obama's) recovery, there's not a single thing Trump or the GOP congress has done for his supporters. My own hometown was transformed when GE moved out. When welfare recipients from across the state were directed to cheap housing in the city, things got really interesting and the city never regained a strong economic footing.
10
On one hand it is certainly both unfortunate and sad regarding the workers @ Lordstown. That said, the only thing constant is change. Adapt or be pushed aside. The labor force that was essential to America in the past will no longer be such a significant factor in the future.
Both parties will give "lip service" to it's decline
Human labor will essentially be replaced. Certainly not ALL Human labor but most. The coal miners, auto workers etc will go the way of the toll takers on the Golden Gate bridge=Gone
Progress always comes at someone's expense.
7
Why can't the federal government buy this plant, retool it to make solar panels and wind turbines, then train the current workers to make these things?
13
@Chris They could, in theory, but that would involve Republican support for a government program.
18
The industrial elite, namely UAW workers won't be happy going from cushy jobs with high pay and benefits to $11/hour. In the global economy the cheapest resource is mindless labor. We live in an overpopulated world and unskilled human labor is cheap and plentiful.
9
@jr The industrial elite would be like the corporate elite, except that the corporate elite might go from making tens of millions of dollars a year to only millions of dollars a year.
5
I wouldn't be so quick to write off Workhorse or its efforts. LG Chem, a subsidiary of Korea's giant LG company, opened a car battery manufacturing plant in Holland, MI in 2013, and within the next few years competition from China cut so deeply into their business that a news program showed workers playing cards next to idle production lines. The future looked quite bleak for the Holland plant. However, within the last year the plant has hired dozens of new workers, and business appears to be booming.
Obviously LG Chem had the backing of an enormous multinational behemoth, an advantage that Workhorse seems to lack - but it is abundantly clear that the market the company has tapped will see exponential growth in the coming years. The principle investors (as well as the overall market, given the stock's recent performance) appear to be aware of this dynamic, and are sticking around.
If we divorce ourselves for a few minutes from politics, we can recognize the positives: new hope for the future of Lordstown and for the future of transportation in the US. Changing the gigantic fleet of delivery vehicles in the US to electric power is a win-win, and we should all be rooting for its success.
6
Reminds me of all the energy saving initiatives financed by the Obama Administration.....the ones that produced nothing.....cost taxpayers billions.....and don’t exist anymore.
2
@Skip Johnson Please tell us who was at fault in those initiatives becoming extinct.
16
Isn't it odd that Trump tweets in early May that the Lordstown agreement was practically a done deal. Before his announcement, Workhorse was trading at $.74 a share. After his announcement, it was trading at $2.65 a share. I wonder if "anyone" happened to buy Workhorse stock before the announcement and then sell it after the announcement. H'mmm, could be a total coincidence.
19
@Joanna Stelling Now, now. Everything the president*, his family, close friends and associates, do, is completely above board and they are not profiting off of the backs of the taxpayers or the president's* tweets.
Yesiree, making insider trading profitable again.
13
not with this transparent president.
6
Trump the “very stable genius” businessman lying again.
What kind of businessman can’t make money selling gambling, alcohol, and meat to US citizens?
Trump Casinos — Bankrupt
Trump Vodka —- Bankrupt
Trump Steaks — Bankrupt.
So much for a great businessman.
23
1. Read the article.
2. Decide for yourself.
3. Vote.
13
Why doesn't one of the big three buy Workhorse for it's electric car/truck division? It sounds like they could buy the company on the open market for less than two dollars a share, merge it into their own nascent electronic division, and forge ahead (literally) giving the combined company the contracts to deliver the promised vehicles? It would seem these start ups provide the established players a way into this market, without having to build it from the ground up. Same with Tesla, just buy the darn thing and run it as the electric car division. The established company gets the electric/autonomous division they need, the smaller company gets the cash, to cash out their shareholders and the combined company now has the expertise and the production capability it needs to bring this much needed technology to the streets of America. With so many delivery trucks, Fresh Direct, UPS, the USPS cruising around, not to mention buses and 18 wheelers spewing CO2 etc into the environment, this would seem an efficient way to effect the change we want.
5
@Meighan Corbett
I thinking taking on new costs runs counter to the plans of Ms Barra, "who is trying to cut costs by eliminating 14,000 jobs across G.M.’s operations,"
1
The "Great Dealmaker" is creating yet another game of smoke and mirrors building something up into something that will never each fruition.
7
@Ellwood Nonnemacher Take a look at Workhorse stock value before Trump got involved and then after he got involved.
3
Looks like nothing unusual here--except that a sitting president is ignorantly weighing in with his shallow opinions/fantasies. So, it's just more of the same from T.Rump. The Lordstown operation will succeed or fail on the merits, like other business ventures. "The infant mortality rate of automotive startups is high." And, yeah, the former GM employees of Lordstown do deserve assistance for recovering, regrouping, retraining and re-employment. Naked capitalism is harsh, but managed capitalism can succeed.
5
It’s always good to experiment with other people’s money. Until it dries, up the swindle is not uncovered. Non financial corporations are in debt and half of them at risk of not being able to repay loans. This may trigger the next one as the data suggest things are cooling down despite pomposity to the contrary. The yield curve has been consistently in negative territory for the last few months.
4
Sounds like a Ponzi scheme.
10
Burn through those dollars, boys, the President is behind us....all the way....'
....to bankruptcy court
12
“Whatever happens to the Lordstown plant, Mr. Trump’s Twitter post and G.M.’s announcement were a victory — at least temporarily — for both the president and the company. “ Yeah, in fantasyland. Doesn’t anyone remember the story of the King with no clothes? We live in a time where 63 million Trump supporters live in fantasy land. They are beyond rational thought and truth. Very scary.
24
Oh well. I hope lordstown population don’t think they are entitled to welfare benefits ?
12
I'm afraid this we'll be seeing articles in the future about Workhouse and all these Lordstown people with their pinned hopes and ultimate disappointment.
I just see so many red flags.
12
Gimme a break...
After the US pumped tens of billions of dollars into GM – it can now just walk away and leave the market vagaries of the electric truck business to...the market???
Sounds like the pharma industry, if pills came with radial tires...
For decades, those dullards touted hydrogen cars, to obfuscate a complete lack of technology progress – until the Japanese car-cos almost blew them off the planet...
Which stable-genius president presided over that financial fiasco – that badly stiffed one set of creditors to win points with another???
Ohhh, yeah – the same one who presided over this fiasco...
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/us/politics/in-solyndra-loan-guarantees-white-house-intervention-is-questioned.html
“...officials at the Office of Management and Budget expressed frustration that they were being put under time pressure to sign off on the loan to the company, Solyndra, two years ago so that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could announce its approval at a groundbreaking for a factory. The White House wanted an announcement that would show progress on job creation...
And now he’s back – running for a 3rd term...
See, NYT – it's not the biased coverage...
It's the biased omission...
3
Trump got his Tweet, his headline, and his victory in Ohio, so he no longer even THINKS about Lordstown, Workhorse, Mary Barra, or thousands of laid-off autoworkers. My guess is that he has never even driven a car - at least not in almost 50 years, because he always had chauffeurs and limousines.
13
Another case of Trump picking winners and losers.
6
The company should be called workdog as the executives make more than their sales. $150 million down the drain with the investors investments.
8
OH MY, another lie from our TYRANT in CHIEF.
9
People who loyally worked for GM are out of jobs and can’t support their families, while Trump and his cronies play a shell game holding hands, skipping and laughing all the way to the bank!
This is truly despicable!
10
@Stefanie Quite honestly, the car they built was not very good, and the market for small cars has been won by the imports. Perhaps, if they had built a better product?
1
@Meighan Corbett. The workers who built them were not responsible for the design or the quality. They just worked and got left holding the bag.
2
But will Trump ever be honest about the situation? Will Mitch McConnell or any republican - even those who represent Ohio - ever call him on it? NO. So trump wins again.
13
Are we all watching closely to see how efficiently the invisible hand is causing these glorious free enterprises to function?
1
Just give taxpayer money to bail them out... just like the farmers. It won't affect the 1% like Trump who don't even pay taxes. Just shows how smart he is (at manipulating the tax code that lobbyist for the rich wrote)
7
@james Did Trump figure out how to manipulate the tax code or did an accountant?
The solution is simple, have a billionaire stable genius like Trump fund the new company to be as successful as all the other companies Trump was involved in. Maybe he could get a loan from Russia if you are listening to pay for this.
28
Am I the only one who wonders if Trump leaks his market moving tweets to his pals so they can move before the rest of the investors get the news?
64
One word: sham
5
The president manipulated the market everyday. He should be impeached for insider trading.
14
@Bob in Pennsyltucky - No, you are not the only person who suspects this. Count me in.
16
Maybe Donald can introduce Workhorse to his bankers at Deutsche Bank, they will loan money to anybody, no questions asked and false misleading financials are acceptable.
45
Yet another perfect example of how oblivious and careless regarding business realities the the guy who is supposed to be " Commander in Chief " actually is. We are as a country , in a truly frightening
circumstance with this infant theoretically at the helm.
17
Mr. Trump is being played for a fool.
Having run his yap, made a promise based on nothing but his need to be the coolest, bestest, President in forever he was trapped, again.
Now comes Steve Burns and Workhorse, a struggling (and teensy and, did I mention, really struggling) Ohio firm with a plan to pull the President's fat out of the fire.
In the process, having already ordered up $300,000,000, Mr. Burns is undoubtedly soon to hear from some savvy investor eager to make America great for once.
Then Trump will be a hero, no one will really mind when the jobs fail to appear the business goes south because of rabid radical environmentalists or Burns just vanishes into the wilds of Mexico.
Trump wins again, and we are safe.
I'd say Mr. Burns has Mr. Trump over something of a barrel.
6
@oogada Mr. Burns might have trump over a barrel if trump were even remotely sane, or a rational adult with ANY sense of responsibility or shame - or any sense of reality. But we have a destructively deranged man in the white house, aided by Mitch McConnell and a republican party that cares more about itself than the country.
7
Steve Burns - the Elon Musk of electric utility vehicles...
2
Why does this just seem like another grift scheme?
Maybe add in some "foreign investments" for extra impression of same?
7
Three hundred million to buy an election when we have Military Veterans going homeless. Our citizen #1, doesn't he care?,
12
OMG, another Trump business. All forms and no substance.
12
Why anyone believed this boggles the mind. Starting an operation to build electric vehicles in Ohio only has a small relation to building conventional vehicles. They may look alike but they are not. Labor has to be retrained, capital assets are different, transportation costs for major components like the batteries will be larger due to weight, availability, specification, and manufacturing locations in the west. Operational processes need to be established that are derivative from conventional vehicles and even proven quality tests have to be re-examined. Test facilities are not nearby. While conventional vehicles have hundreds of parts and suppliers, electric vehicles have many fewer and those suppliers are probably not near. By 2019, not one useable product will be there. Trump has no concept of real production, manufacturing, supply chain management, or employee relations. He is a moron. But, I didn't vote for him so, I've got that going for me. IMO, the investors are more than worried.
22
What a joke. Everything Trump becomes even remotely associated with fails miserably. Everyone in NY knew this. It takes him being elected President for everyone else to find out.
26
Workhorse is soon going to be a dead horse, especially if the jockey is Trump.
16
Didn't Workhorse take incentives from Missouri taxpayers to manufacture in the closed Ford Hazelwood MO. plant?
10
Maybe more accurately... A Potemkin village...
9
This Steve Burns is a Trump wannabe; big mouth, big ideas, no money, no plans. More hot air.
6
Perhaps the Mexicans will pay for it.
21
He'll come up with a federally-guaranteed loan of $300 million and with it assure himself of winning Ohio in 2020. That is all he cares about. It makes no difference if the company goes bust as long as he can string it along until December 2020.
21
@Stevenz
He'll declare an "emergency" in Ohio, and move military money over to this plant. Shameless, Chump!
4
" Workhorse said it needed $22 million to make vehicles for UPS, DHL and other customers. Without new financing, it said, “we will be unable to continue as a going concern.”
It has no money; how did Workhorse secure these contracts?
17
Trump could cement his 2020 win in Ohio (and possibly the midwest) by giving the electric truck company $300 million. I'm sure they have already discussed it. We've moved on already from private donations being used to buy elections; the GOP has reached the point where it is fine using taxpayer funds to buy elections, right out in the open.
When will this nightmare end?
28
Meanwhile, the state of Ohio has shown their appreciation for electric vehicles by tacking another $200 per year onto the license registration fee for EVs.
In a related jab at those Prius driving liberals, the state added another $100 to the cost of registering a hybrid vehicle, even ones that have no electrical plug in capabilities.
28
Last year, Workhorse’s revenue totaled $763,000, about $62,000 less than the combined salaries of its top three executives.
Smells fishy to me. Ride the good times while they last.
24
The President's intervention in matters of the US economy are always, reliably helpful. Just ask the former workers at Carrier.
26
@John LeBaron
And don't forget the "bailed out" farmers, bailed out with taxpayer monies from the tariffs. Pure stupidity!
3
You have to start somewhere. If in fact Workhorse has already delivered well made working vehicles to UPS and Ryder then all they need is capital to grow.
@Mike L -- Right. But companies that are this tiny don't usually start with a facility the size cost of the Lordstown plant. It will also need huge capital investment in retooling. It's like a 14 year old with a lawn mower buying a derelict Caterpillar factory.
12
@Mike L
That's right, all they need is $300,000,000 to reopen a plant Trump didn't bother to save, and no doubt ongoing tax breaks and such, because there is no other company in America who make electric trucks.
And, if there happens to be, maybe their workers deserve to lose their jobs and their houses and their communities to make our President look extra special good.
And, of course, Ohio has money to burn on big but specious plans to make Trump seem a savior.
8
Maybe Trump should ask Deutsche Bank to cough up the $300 million.
Ona more serious note we must all be concerned about Trumps inability to do due diligence and to think before he jumps( tweets)
This situation, Carrier and many others are examples of Trump proclaiming success only for the opposite to be true.
Than there is the his selection of advisors , Cabinet members etc and the consequent revolving doors. Flynn, Manafort , Cohen etc are prime examples .
I worry that this man does not have the depth and intellectual capacity to handle our entrenched problems and an extreme emergency that puts our Country at risk.
28
@Carsafrica -- He's a president that runs the country on whim. You can do that, of course, when you know everything about everything.
3
seems like another trump con job
deal not done yet he celebrates
buyer is almost bankrupt
even if it works out, no way near the number of employees who lost their jobs
28
My last day driving my long-haul truck took me over a very familiar road as I headed eastbound. The Lordstown plant, with its massive “Cruze” sign emblazoned in the side, was clearly visible.
The day was February 22, 2019, mere days before the last car rolled off the line. For some time, I knew the day was coming. The number of employee cars in their lots were less and less as they cut back from three shifts to two, then one. There were fewer and fewer finished cars in the other lot on the other side of the plant, waiting for their car haulers to take them to dealers all over the US.
I feel bad for the people who live and work there, but I do not understand why anymore of them voted for the current occupant of the Oval Office. He did not help.
116
@Michael -- Yet in typical political fashion, every one of those laid off workers has been convinced that they will be building electric trucks, any day now, because the government has their backs. This has been going on with plant closings for decades. The track record isn't encouraging.
13
@Michael
And they will vote for him again, when he tells them that a Democrat spoiled their hopes.
25
So typical of Trump to know nothing about a subject or a deal and then to declare it a done deal. It would be comical if he was still a reality television actor but sadly for Americans that is no longer the case!
33
I don't think Trump really understands capitalism in its most basic form. All he understands is the art of the con.
61
Another con job by Trump. Trump knows nothing about the auto industry just like he knows nothing about ANYTHING else.
26
Well,if Workhorse doesn't work out, the former GM employees can get one of the millions of coal mining jobs tRump says he's created. Or maybe a career in growing soybeans.
62
@Ron
how bout those Carrier jobs in Indiana?
9
"The new venture, whose name remains secret, exists almost entirely on paper. Headed by the founder and former chief executive of Workhorse, Steve Burns, the business would have to raise at least $300 million to get Lordstown running again."
Lets Go GOP! Show us how capitalist you all are and cough up the capital to build America!
13
@magicisnotreal - Jeff Bezos should just write a small check and get this up and running. Or his ex-wife who just announced she was going to donate half of her divorce settlement to charity could do the same. If liberals swooped in before the Republicans could get it together that would have quite an impact on voters.
I think Bezos made $300 million in interest in less time than it took me to type this:))
3
It's all smoke and mirrors, just like the revival of the coal industry. When are Trump's working class supporters going to wake up and realize that Trump is a con man and cares for nobody but himself?
27
@Art never
12
Trump lied? My goodness, this will be a game changer. I am certain that his supporters will be most upset.
18
Smoke, mirrors and puffery. The Wizard (Trump) is hidden behind the curtain mesmerizing the people of Lordstown with daily pronouncements that all will be better if they just follow him. What is needed is a modern day Dorothy (along with today's version of Toto, Tinman, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion)to go to Washington DC and expose "Wizard Trump" as the lying, sleazy being that he really is.
13
@Terry
Enter the House investigations to show just how little meat is on the bones of anything Chump and his Administration propose. The meat is making its way into their lined pockets.
C'mon, House, let's get this (reality TV) show started.
Trump acting as if he knows something about the auto industry is like me expecting my cat to know how to write a novel.
Trump, who has been coddled all his life and has had a private chauffer since puberty, doesn't even know how to drive a car.
18
"the business would have to raise at least $300 million to get Lordstown running again."
Simple fix, use the same request form that Solyndra used. $535 million, in your account in less than 48 hours!
4
Another story in the Times about another con job by Trump. When are we going to see the meta-story, a story on all those stories? "Trump: President as Confidence Man." It's true, it's news, and it's very much fit to print.
22
@TMSquared
amen enough with the free publicity
expose him for what he is.
3
Stock ticker: WKHS
3 year change = -74.82%
6
Yet another Fraudulent Scam by trump.
A company that exist on "paper"?
Perhaps you can talk to the folks in Wisconsin....who are STILL waiting on the plant trump 'promised' would bring thousands of jobs; instead it brought NOTHING.
21
Why doesn’t billionaire Trump give Workhorse a loan and then make sure they get the postal contract. I’m sure Trump knows somebody who can help with that.
11
@Norm Vinson
Yes but a loan is not the kind of capitalism we need here. Investing actual capital that will be lost if it fails is the model we need here and elsewhere in the US.
Using banks to make loans is a way to make the people pay for the thing as any dafault will be paid by them in the system of insurance and banking fees and no one actually involved ends of investing or losing anything of their own. Worse still they get the benefit if it works. That is communism not capitalism.
2
There is a moral to this story. Company executives need to keep Trump out of the informational loop unless they want their activities made public.
Trump cannot be trusted to keep information to himself if in any way it makes him look good or someone else look bad.
23
@Tahuaya Armijo
Says a lot about what's probably taking place with all of the highly classified intelligence he receives, doesn't it?
Remember Lordstown and the Vega, the reason we all own Japanese cars. Don’t you remember the bumper sticker that said don’t buy a car produced in Lordstown on a Monday. The work ethic was a little less than GM desired in those early days but the Union protected them all.
3
@Rich Murphy In fairness, Lordstown produced more cars per hour than any other GM plant in 1970 (granted they were Vegas, so maybe a little easier to build). After GM took over and crammed a worker layoff down the union's throat, without any reduction in production time, the quality of the cars did diminish.
6
Chairman Kim called Trump a mentally deranged U.S. dotard. Perhaps that’s sending us a signal?
38
Never give a sucker an even break. Never smarten up a chump.
8
“It makes it look like something weird was going on, but it was nothing nefarious.”
Of course. Yep. Everyone believes that.
So not just Trump that lies every day. About everything.
28
"G.M. strongly supports the Workhorse-affiliated bid. 'The proposal Workhorse and Steve Burns brought us could be a win-win for everyone,' said James Cain, a company spokesman. 'As with any transaction of this size, there’s a lot of work to be done, but the opportunity is real, and electrification is the future.'"
Umm. . . If electrification is the future, why isn't GM investing in this?
Also, why are the top 3 people at Workhorse taking salaries of $200,000+? One would think they could get by on a little less than that.
Maybe this will all work out to everyone's satisfaction, but so far the likelihood appears to be remote. Until companies with substantial resources get involved (looking at you, GM), people won't take electric vehicles seriously, even though technology exists to make them perform like internal-combustion vehicles and be affordable for average folks.
12
correct, in capitalism it's called skin in the game. here it's free government cheese for autocrats
1
Yes someone with experience needs to take the reigns of Workhorse. It needs Capital (capital that won't kill it when the predatory lenders bail with boatloads of warrants).
This is a good business model; BUT someone needs to take control and fast! Ramping up with so much in capital costs and working cash requirements will take geniuses in every function.
They may have a good product; but there is a huge probability this will go bust as it grows too fast!
2
@Chris Patrick Augustine
Actually, it appears that Workhouse doesn't need to grow to go bust. The ongoing cash burn at its present size will do just fine.
What it needs for any idea of meeting its existing commitments to happen is a LOT of capital - probably over a billion dollars in the form of old-fashioned equity rather than hedge fund loan sharking.
2
We still haven't come up with an answer to the fact that the labor inputs in a modern economy aren't the same as they were 80 years ago. Where once there were jobs aplenty for those with nothing more than a strong back - felling trees, farming, digging coal, smelting steel, assembling vehicles - now we hear the clank of the robot, the hum of the computer and the murmur of the handful of technicians who maintain them. It is no longer the economy of the future. It is the economy of now.
Mr. Trump is guilty of selling hope to people who don't the game is over.
21
And all trump's followers will "remember" regardless of what transpires from here on is that trump "saved" the Lordstown G.M. plant.
As to Mr. Burns and the $300M he needs, perhaps trump can intercede with his pals at Deutsche Bank on Burns' behalf? They don't seem to mind losing money to trump.
34
@J Darby
Isn't it strange how Trump's followers always seem not only to "remember" things that didn't really happen--in fact, to insist that they did--yet never seem to remember the things that did happen--in fact, to insist that they didn't.
15
@J Darby
Deutsche Bank is a scam in and of itself. It appears to be little more than a Russian pass through 'bank' to avoid sanctions.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/17/deutsche-bank-faces-action-over-20bn-russian-money-laundering-scheme
10
@R. Williams
Exactly. Like the folks who claimed that the DPRK was successfully denuclearized after trump's first "summit" w/ Kim.
3
Even if this imaginary company was able to somehow open a factory, these won't be union jobs and won't pay a worker much more than they would get flipping burgers.
There is, unfortunately, no realistic upside to this proposal except for the insiders who bought Workhorse stock before the Trump tweet and who are by now likely out of it.
12
@TJGM: If...IF...this vapor company were to actually come into being, it would be a new factory; that means, far more automation and far fewer human-performed jobs, at far lower pay for most of them.
And you are right, the word "union" won't exist...machines don't unionize. And the few people lucky enough to have jobs won't have the power to protect themselves. That is the future of American manufacturing; and the future is now. It is bleak.
8
@Aaron Taylor
True that!
And with no unions the American worker will soon be working for the same wages as Chinese workers. That's the only way the Global Economy can work.
1
"Whatever happens to the Lordstown plant, Mr. Trump’s Twitter post and G.M.’s announcement were a victory — at least temporarily — for both the president and the company. Mr. Trump could contend that he had saved a big factory in a state that could help him win re-election next year."
Well, if you consider a lie a victory, well, then it's a triumph. Just wait. This "purchase" (it doesn't sound that promising if Workhorse is hanging by a thread and needs to raise a ton of dough) was referenced in the weekend article about the laid off GM employee who worked in the paint section.
If I recall, he wasn't optimistic there would be a place for him, if the factory gets revived by Workhorse at all.
The president is like a little kid, who just can't wait to blurt out news, whether or not it's true. He's done that before with Carrier. I want to see what he says--probably nothing--if this can't be consummated.
He'll just count on nobody remembering, or he'll deny, evidence or not, that he said it at all.
28
So Trump LIED yet again about the real situation.
Will the workers forgive Trump and blame someone else?
Why?
16
Trump owns fake news. He simply can't be believed about anything. He just makes stuff up, and sells it, and low information consumers buy it.
The displaced workers know this; the question is, how will they vote?
22
So, the President of the United States tweeted a lie to these poor, desperate citizens of Ohio? It’s all just another false promise from the most amoral man to ever sit in the Oval Office. I sure hope these folks come to their senses and realize that Trump is only concerned about Trump, before it’s too late for them. Just like the hundreds and hundreds of small business owners that Trump left holding his debts, bankrupting out of his responsibilities time and time again, while destroying the lives of these small businesses owners.
14
I hope they can get the GM plant going again. That area needs toe jobs.
But it won't be because of Donald Trump. He would have a nugatory effect on any deliberations.
We'll know by the next election if the voters of Northeastern Ohio are still more gullible than savvy.
11
The only thing BOOMING in this story is debt. If allowed to continue,Trum and friends will bankrupt everything/everyone.
7
I wonder if Eric/Don Jr bought any of those $0.74 warrants before the POTUS tweet? Now at $2.65, that’s a nice gain on pure speculation.
30
Those jobs aren't coming back. Robotics and automation will be central business strategies for whatever companies emerge as winners in the electric vehicle market. Including electric helicopters! Just as they are in the slowly dying market of traditional combustion engine vehicles. As the EVs rise, the combustion engines shall fall.
The real interesting question is the insider information regarding which company will win the bid to build 6 billion dollars worth of replacement trucks for the USPS. Since that's an exponentially greater sum than the figures mentioned in the article, if Workhorse is the winner that 2 dollar stock will shoot right through the roof.
9
If I were a displaced Ohio auto worker, I wouldn't exactly be jumping for joy that a start-up truck company was going to be my economic savior. And if that company was going to produce electric trucks, I'd put my house on the market ASAP.
Folks, we're still at the early stages of EV cars and trucks. The global auto companies are still struggling to develop vehicles that will sell without massive tax breaks for consumers. Even though there are those brief rays of hope, like Tesla, its recent sales history isn't something which would lure any venture capitalist. Worse yet, there are the myriad of other EV start-ups, which frankly never quite managed to even start.
Is it possible that Workhorse will become a success? I guess that all depends on how broadly you define "possible." But to toy with these Ohioans' last hopes in this way, for obvious political reasons, is a new low for 45, as impossible as that might seem.
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If you've ever done a request for proposal, there's no way a government office is going to sign a $6 billion contract with a company already buried in cash flow problems. I would expect USPS to downsize their order to millions or less if they order anything at all. The gesture would be tokenism rather than sound business anyway. I wouldn't dare order anything essential to operations from Workhorse.
You can catch a hint of this in Ryder's public response. You shouldn't get calls about problems with any trucks if you're servicing and maintaining your fleet.
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@Andy And there would not ever be any calls about reliability. If you're not buying Workhorse vehicles. Which it seems very few are. :)
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GM should have followed Volkswagen’s example in Wicklau, Germany by converting the Lordstown factory to build all electric vehicles (EVs) on the condition that Ohio pass a law mandating EVs by 2025 along with a sales tax holiday for the first 50,000 cars purchased by Ohio residents. That there was only the usual Trump bullying rather than creative deal-making is why Trump’s MAGA is really a Mirage About Gouging America.
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@Paul Wortmanp: You are admitting that electric vehicles are not yet commercially viable. The sounds like Corporate Welfare where a few individuals will get very rich off our taxes.
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@Paul Wortmanp From the state that just banned abortion, you are expecting anything progressive?!
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@Paul Wortmanp: GM is not and never has been a forward-looking company. They cannot get out of the “Detroit Builds Cars” mentality, even as he ship more and more of their manufacturing offshore to reduce their costs, while increasing their prices.
To expect them to undertake a new venture like EV in a big way is folly.
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No one, but no one, in the history of our beloved Republic has risen higher by always selling "the sizzle, not the steak," as our accidental president.
This is yet another example. The former administration staffer who said not long ago that the metric Trump is most interested in is "deliverable Tweets" was exactly right.
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@Enemy of Crime Trump Steaks. The sizzle that fizzled. Along with Trump Water, Trump The Cologne, Trump Fashions, Trump Wine, Trump Napkins, Trump Bottle Openers, well, you get the picture.
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@Anna
Sadly, methinks you will need add to your list of Pres. Donald's failures;
United States of America
7
Regardless of the entirely predictable rush to announce *something* that is typical of Trump, I am more concerned with his meddling in the affairs of private companies. His all-too-common exhortations of company CEOs are part and parcel of his use of threats to demonize opponents, demanding special behavior outside of administration policy, and gaming the economy for an ephemeral PR "win".
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@Doug Gardner
The bigger question is why do any CEO’s bother to listen to him.
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Sounds like Mr. Burns is a graduate of Trump University. For all those hoping for a turnaround in Lordstown, it seems we’ve seen this before. Please don’t bet your own money on this turning out well. It likely will not.
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Why not a workers' cooperative to run and own the plant? This has been done in other abandoned factories around the world. Waiting for the golden goose (Workhorse) to lay its egg and build e-trucks is a nice idea but not a real plan.
Another option would be state or federal subsidies to make sure the Workhorse plan actually comes to fruition.
Either way the government should not be passive and let this valuable factory be left to rot.
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@VoxAndreas Sorry, but you can forget state or federal subsidies. It is a well known fact that this administration in particular, and Republicans in general, do not like renewable energy. If it ain't blowing smoke out of the tailpipe, they will not back it. Just look at how difficult Republican states made things for Tesla, they don't even like them selling their cars.
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I'm shocked, shocked, that a Trump trumpeted job initiative (also see Foxconn) was just for in-the-moment publicity (and perhaps an unseen quid pro quo).
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And yet some still support him. Scary. Delusional. Gullible. Beyond amazing.
And this is why not one Republican deserves any support. They brought him to us, supported him, and thus have zero credibility or judgment.
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Whether Workforce succeeds or not is hard to say, but that doesn't matter to Trump. Trump is akin to a dealer of drugs keeping his customers hanging on to his every word promising to provide them with a "fix" and telling them everyone else is failing them and convincing them they have nowhere else to go but to him.
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Foolish approach. Must think outside the box. DJM
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If Traitor Trumps' mob, and the inhabitants of the rust belt, the homeland, and middle America don't get it by now, they never will.
Democrats shouldn't waste their time talking to the 80 IQ crowd.
The Chevrolet Cruze, by the way, is rated as being a car to stay away from.
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@george eliot
" The Chevrolet Cruze, by the way, is rated as being a car to stay away from. "
The first new car I bought was a Vega built at Lordstown. Worst. Car. Ever. Never bought another Chevrolet and never will.
Note to Steve Burns:
" Last year, Workhorse’s revenue totaled $763,000, about $62,000 less than the combined salaries of its top three executives. "
That's some business model ya' got there... All you need is a steady stream of new investors who haven't done their research.
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@BA_Blue I just want to say a word in support of the poor unloved Vega. It was our first car which we bought in 1975. We drove it for 10 years without problem then due to a move overseas, had to sell it. And it was still on the road several years later. My vote for worst car ever was the Ford Focus we owned that was recalled 13 times...which is when we stopped buying Fords.
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@BA_Blue
They are just following the trump business model.
2
This is how propaganda works. Trump will probably brag about the jobs he created in Lordstown in his campaign.
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@robert conger Even worse: A lot of people will believe him.
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@Bob R
And even worse is that he'll make it in a speech in the closed Lordstown Complex parking lot to out of work autoworkers and they'll believe that they have jobs and that the factory is still open.
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This isn't going to happen. The Postal service isn't going to award a 6 billion dollar contract to a company that has virtually no production facilities and no operating cash. Rivian has Amazon and Ford behind it. I'd say that backing makes them a real prospect.
You see, selling stuff and making stuff are two different things. Trump is great at selling stuff. Ford is great at making stuff. Big difference.
The next shoe to drop in the cascade of empty Trump promises is the TV plant in Iowa. That won't happen either. And what ever happened to the Carrier plant in Ohio that Trump claims he saved? How many of those jobs have been replaced with automation, paid for with state tax breaks?
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You never know what kind the pressure the admin will apply to force USPS into risky deal that would not collapse until after the political benefit was realized.
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@Bruce Rozenblit Add in the Foxconn plant in WI that will never build a flat-panel display.
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Case in point: A company called American Bantam developed the Jeep on a shoestring, but the Army gave most of the business to Willys and Ford.
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We’re heading for a pump and dump economy. All the leaked information about economic moves from this Administration is chumming the water for Wall Street. All churn no progress.
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What will, or won't, be happening at this site a year from now will help to determine Trump's re-election chances. He can tweet and bloviate at his lovefest rallies all he wants, but Lordstown workers still won't be making cars and the building could very well remain empty.
15
They will still vote for him.
3
@WTK
And he'll blame it all on Obama and the laid-off workers will vote to re-elect him.
1
"...the business would have to raise at least $300 million to get Lordstown running again." Or in other words, corporate welfare, in the form of tax incentives, would be needed to get the plant running again. This isn't going to fare well for Lordstown long-term.
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Too many times this President makes promises and assertions that are not true in any way. He gives people false hope, makes them see him as a savior and peddles nothing but lies. Lordstown - the place he promised to save, after General Motors was saved by the US government and citizens is no more.
People need to remember these false promises and decide for themselves - more of the same, is that what I want in a President and for a possible second term. He blames others, makes you blame others, but has no viable solutions. Waste the taxpayers money...
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Mary Barra:
Total compensation for 2018 $ 21.96 Million.
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@Margo Channing. M Barra Sing. She may need to soon.
@Margo Channing THANK YOU!
2