Will Trump Organization Follow Trump’s Order And Pull Its Manufacturing Out Of China?
[guest post by Dana]
As you know, President Trump *ordered* U.S. companies to find alternatives to China a few days ago as the U.S. trade war with China escalates:
With that in mind, do you think the Trump Organization will follow the President’s order?
In the retail shop operated by the Trump Organization in the back of Trump’s D.C. hotel, golf caps and travel coffee mugs emblazoned with the Trump name and made in China are still offered for sale, alongside other products produced in Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries.
A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, Amanda Miller, did not respond to a request for comment Friday about whether the company would stop selling or producing Chinese products in response to the president’s directive.
Trump still owns his company, but it is being managed by his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, while he is in office.
Amid criticism that Trump’s company continued to rely on imported merchandise while Trump railed against others for doing so, the Trump Organization began offering more merchandise clearly labeled “Made in America,” including T-shirts and hats. On its retail site, TrumpStore.com, the company now lists a “Made in America” section.
During the presidential campaign, Trump responded to a question about why he imported products by saying, “We’re allowed to do it. … But I’m the one that knows how to change it.”
Note: In perusing the Trump Organization store, there is certainly a Made in America section with every product clearly labeled as such. There is also a menu from which to select other shopping categories for merchandise. The products in other shopping categories do not necessarily have the “Made in America” indicator. As a matter of fact, on any number of items there is no mention of where they are manufactured. See samples below.
1) Trump Organization Shopping Options:
2) Item clearly designated as “Made in America”:
3) Item with no indication of where it has been made:
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (fdf131) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:05 pmMaybe. You’d think the answer is no…
But if you read his tweet carefully…
All he *ordered* them to do was to…
…start looking…
for an alternative to China.
He doesn’t have to *order* anyone to do that.
Most businesses importing from China are doing that anyway. If they think the tariffs are going to stay on along tiem and get higher. The primary complaint really from a business organziation si that Trump seems to epect the tariffs not to end soon. And abig problem is that they really can’t find an alternative because there suppliers have suppliers and it took a long time to set things up in China.
They’re looking, they’re looking, though/
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:15 pmFrom the Washington Post article:
Why do you think the President needs to signal to them to begin to do it on their own? Likely because he is going to do it for them if they don’t do it on their own. And judging from his own words, I think we can safely assume that that’s the route he’s planning on taking, if he can:
Dana (fdf131) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:19 pmI think Trump said that to American companies to stir things up and to give investors and the Chinese a little more to worry about.
Heh… after a weekend of reading and hearing about how Trump’s brinksmanship with Xi is going to cause a meltdown on Wall St., and a recession, China says (I’m paraphrasing) “Hey, let’s discuss trade and tariffs, surely we can work something out.”
And Japan wants to buy all our corn.
Colonel Haiku (1986ab) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:22 pmjust a touch of overreacting, I’m not risking my hair to set it on fire,
narciso (d1f714) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:23 pmIncidentally, Trump’s statistics, as usual, are exaggerated.
He said fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year.
But according to a New York Daily News editorial the actual annual overdose death total, from all narcotics, is about 70,000, and fewer than half of them are fentanyl-related.
So it’s more like 25,000 to 30,000.
Fentanyl is extremely dangerous. It’s used because of the crackdown on opiod smuggling and on prescriptions of safer opiods, but it’s so pteent that the amounts are much harder to control. A chef in New York was one of three people who died from afentanyl related overdose.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:24 pm4. Colonel Haiku (1986ab) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:22 pm
For other reasons than what concern Trump, or for only a few of the reasons that concern Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants Predient Donald Trump to continue to be tough on China.
That’s mainly North Korea, which China backs. Although China is trying to pretend to be against what Kim Jong Un is doing, it’s coaching him.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:28 pmTrump maybe could shut down trade with China, if he offers a national security justification, and that’s not hard to find; but he can’t order companies to begin looking for an alternative. (He can say it would behoove them to do so)
Do you know the New York Daily News, in an editorial in saturday;s paper, compared him to Captain Queeg?
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-chosen-trump-20190823-3hwg4udk3bewrdjqywtljztnha-story.html
Boldface and italics mine.
The Wall Street Journal said he was acting like this was the People’s Republic of America:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/just-another-manic-friday-11566600681
Boldface mine, again.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:39 pmDana rocks.
That is all.
Dave (c4bb53) — 8/26/2019 @ 12:48 pmof course not. sacrificing for the greater good is for the little people.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 8/26/2019 @ 2:10 pmDidn’t Daddy’s Little Girl get some sweetheart business/trademark deals from the Chinese government as bribes to her father, and don’t her hubby and his family also make nice bank selling green cards over there to people willing to buy New Jersey swampland at a premium?
Dave (1bb933) — 8/26/2019 @ 2:23 pmSee, if Trump were as clever and savvy as he believes he is, he would have made sure that the Trump Organization and any pie his finger is still in, had removed anything from its inventory that was made in China, and he would have lead the way by looking for alternatives to China and making sure everyone knew what he was doing. Then he should have done it. Otherwise, goose, gander, pot, kettle…
Dana (fdf131) — 8/26/2019 @ 2:36 pmTrump, lead by example? Surely, you’re joking. I’m not joking, and don’t call me Shirley.
Actually, what Trump’s impotent Tweet represents is a clear admission that tariffs are not accomplishing their intended goal, which is to force American businesses to move production out of China. Or, as Eric Boehm calls it, an inept attempt at central planning and an act of petty tyranny.
https://reason.com/2019/08/23/as-trade-war-escalates-trump-has-impotently-ordered-american-businesses-out-of-china/
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 8/26/2019 @ 4:20 pmOn one hand: Trump fighting for the USA
On the other hand: Left-wing MSM interested in Snark and attacking Trump 24/7.
Wow, who to believe?
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/26/2019 @ 5:35 pmI wonder how much Reason Magazine is getting from Big Donors like the Late – not to be missed – Koch Brothers?
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/26/2019 @ 5:36 pmrcocean,
What exactly is your line of hypocrisy that you are unwilling to accept when it comes to Trump? Is there even a line, or is everything he does o.k. because Trump??
Dana (fdf131) — 8/26/2019 @ 6:10 pmUpdate: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/20/home-depot-says-suppliers-are-moving-manufacturing-out-of-china.html
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/27/2019 @ 2:09 pmthe Chinese have been waging unrestricted warfare, probably since they entered the wto, without any intention, of abiding by these protocols, in part because they know how they have been enforced in the past,
narciso (d1f714) — 8/27/2019 @ 2:41 pm