U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that General Motors (GM), whose subsidies he once threatened to revoke, will sell its Lordstown plant in Ohio and build electric trucks there.
Trump said in a tweet that he had spoken with GM CEO Mary Barra, who told him that the automaker "will be selling their beautiful Lordstown Plant to Workhorse, where they plan to build Electric Trucks."
Workhorse Group Inc. is a manufacturing company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is focused on building electrically powered delivery and utility vehicles.
GM, according to Trump, will be spending 700 million U.S. dollars in Ohio in three separate locations, creating additional 450 jobs.
"I have been working nicely with GM to get this done," the president said.
GM announced on Nov. 26 that it will halt production in five North American plants, including the Lordstown plant, and cut over 14,000 jobs in 2019.
Trump took to Twitter one day after the announcement was made, saying that he was "very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO," and that he was "looking at" cutting all subsidies GM receives, including for electric cars.
U.S. media assumed at the time that the president was probably referring to the 7,500-U.S.-dollar tax breaks the U.S. federal government granted to consumers buying electric vehicles. CNN cited people familiar with the matter as saying the company was unaware of other federal incentives it was receiving beyond that.
Trump didn't mention in the Wednesday tweet what he would do with the subsidies.
