Update: Trump declares a (fake) victory over Deere & Co.
Also, listen to me on the radio and come to the IWC holiday party!
It looks like Donald Trump is done using John Deere workers as campaign props.
CNN reported on Wednesday that Trump claimed in an appearance before the Economic Club of Chicago that Deere & Co. had suddenly dropped its plans to move some of its production to Mexico in response to his threat to impose 200% tariffs on the company’s imports.
“They just announced yesterday they’re probably not going to build the plants, OK? I kept the jobs here,” Trump said in Chicago.
This is not true, of course.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Deere said it hadn’t changed its plans at all. It was all a Trump invention.
This isn’t surprising. Trump’s tariff threat, made in Pennsylvania last month, was wrapped in lies to begin with. And as I wrote at the time, he was simply using Deere & Co. and the laid off workers the same way he used companies in Ohio and Indiana in his previous campaigns.
Deere & Co. is the largest employer in the Quad-Cities, and its workers are everywhere in this community. Donald Trump’s callous exploitation of their hardships to promote himself should make our blood boil.
Incidentally, Deere announced this week it is going through yet another round of layoffs, affecting 287 workers in the Quad-Cities. And the Des Moines Register reports the company made a point of saying that these layoffs, just like the others, are due to reduced demand and not production moves.
In other words, while Trump may be moving on from this fiasco, Deere is still dealing with the fallout.
Listen Up
The latest edition of the Iowa Down Ballot political podcast, a feature of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, offers a discussion about the first day of early voting in Iowa, absentee balloting and how Republicans in the Iowa Legislature have made it harder to vote that way.
These topics and others, including a debate in Iowa’s 2nd District race for Congress—and how the abortion and immigration issues factored into it—are part of this week’s podcast.
I did not participate, but Laura Belin, Dave Busiek, Julie Gammack, Kathie Obradovich and Dave Price offer valuable insight.
Live from Augustana College!
Another programming note: I’m the featured guest on WVIK radio’s “Saturday Morning Live!” program on Oct. 19. If you’re in the Quad-Cities, you can hear it at 10 a.m. at 90.3 FM and 90.3HD1, or you can listen at wvik.org. If you can’t listen live, go to the program’s podcast page.
The host of SML is Kai Swanson. I have been on the program previously, when we talked about, among other things, this newsletter, baseball and books. It was a great time, and I’m sure this will be no different. This weekend, we’re going to talk about the upcoming elections, how to find good sources of news and whatever else comes to mind.
I hope you’ll tune in.
Party time
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative’s annual holiday party will be on Dec. 13, from 5-8 p.m., at the Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement at Drake University, 2800 University Ave., Des Moines.
Paying subscribers to this newsletter, as well as paid subscribers to the publications of other members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, are invited to the party. So are paying subscribers to the IWC Roundup and donors to the Iowa Capital Dispatch. Additional guests can attend for a donation to be given at the event.
This is one of the Collaborative’s ways of saying thanks to those who support us financially.
Along the Mississippi is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please check out the work of my colleagues and consider subscribing. Also, the collaborative partners with the Iowa Capital Dispatch, which provides hard-hitting news along with selected commentary by members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please consider making a donation to support its work, too.
With today's news of additional John Deere layoffs, this is only the most recent example of Trump politicizing a situation for electoral gain without addressing deeper economic and technological factors. Simplifying the problem or using it as a talking point will only cause greater pain for the families of laid-off workers and will distract from discussions about how to support affected workers, retraining, or fostering innovation in industries like manufacturing and agriculture.