Spartanburg County Reacts Strongly to Trump’s Criticism of Local Automotive Manufacturing

Spartanburg County Strikes Back at Trump’s Comments on Automotive Industry

Well, folks, it seems that some recent comments from former President Donald Trump about the car production industry has sparked an uproar in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. If you missed it, during an interview earlier this week, he claimed that car manufacturing in South Carolina is mostly just assembly work—we’re talking Legos level stuff, according to him. He even went far enough to suggest that a child could do it!

“Mercedes Benz will start building in the United States. They have a little bit. You know what they really are, assembly like in South Carolina. But, they build everything in Germany, and then they assemble it here. They get away with murder because they say, ‘Oh, yes, we’re building cars.’ They don’t build cars. They take them out of a box and they assemble them. We could have our child do it.”

Spartanburg County Fights Back

As you can imagine, people in Spartanburg, especially those who work in the automotive industry, are not too happy about that evaluation of their work. After all, this is an area home to several automotive plants, including BMW and Mercedes Benz.

County Councilman David Britt, who was part of the team that originally brought BMW to Spartanburg over 30 years ago, has stepped up to defend the industry. “He is so misinformed and uninformed about what BMW does as far as manufacturing.” Britt responded. And trust us, Britt isn’t one to mince words.

Setting the Record Straight

Britt made it clear: the only part of the BMW vehicles manufactured abroad is the engines. All the other components? They’re made right there in South Carolina: “The only part that BMW makes in Germany is the engine. But, all the other components are made right here in Spartanburg County if not in other parts of South Carolina.”

The big shots at BMW also weighed in with a detailed statement that highlighted just how substantial their operations in Spartanburg actually are. They’ve got an eight-million-square-foot facility, three body shops, two paint shops, two assembly halls, and a recent addition of a metal stamping facility. Plus, their plant pumps out 1,500 vehicles daily and they’ve invested over $13 billion in the place. Sound like child’s play? Didn’t think so.

Making An Invitation

After all this uproar, Councilman Britt decided to extend an invitation to the former president, hoping to give him a first-hand look at what really goes down in car manufacturing. He’d previously invited him back in 2018 and this time reiterated the offer: “That offer still stands today. If he wants to see what manufacturing and BMW are all about, his socks will be blown off by what they’re doing.”

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