Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, left, toured the the GM Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, with Chairman and CEO Mary Barra.
The up-and-down relationship between General Motors and the Trump administration was on an up stroke Wednesday as Ivanka Trump met with CEO Mary Barra to tour part of the automaker’s technical center just outside Detroit.
Trump, an adviser to the president, toured the automaker’s Technical Learning University located on the GM Global Technical Center campus in Warren, Michigan, a suburb just north of Detroit.
During the visit, GM highlighted the company’s commitment to continued workforce training for hourly skilled trades workers and salaried manufacturing engineers. GM Chairman and CEO Barra walked Trump through the center, which included a visit to the electrical apprentice classroom and an interactive demonstration in the electrical apprentice robotics lab.
(GM secures $489.4M Trump administration contract to build ventilators.)
According to multiple reports, Trump talked with several employees throughout the tour while Barra and others provided her with insights and information about the company’s training efforts. President Donald Trump made manufacturing and training a key point in his run for president during the 2016 campaign and has already begun banging that campaign drum again.
General Motors students Jeff Thompson (left to right) and Sylvia Tran talk with Trump, Barra and Deputy Secretary U.S. Department of Commerce Karen Dunn Kelley.
“This is something that the president has been passionate about since the day he took office, championing the American worker and creating more pathways and opportunities for the American workers,” Ivanka Trump said, according to CNBC.com.
Skeptics would highlight the timing of the trip, noting that Michigan is a battleground state and was one of three states that really swung the election Trump’s way last time. Additionally, Warren is in Macomb County, a county which relies heavily on manufacturing and voted in favor of Trump last time.
Sending his daughter at this time would seemingly reinforce his political efforts, but White House and GM officials threw cold water on those thoughts, saying that the plans for the visit have been set for nearly a year.
(GM teams up with Ventech to ramp up production of ventilators for coronavirus epidemic.)
It’s hard to ignore Donald Trump’s hot-and-cold feelings for the Detroit-based automakers. He both praised and criticized GM for its efforts to produce needed equipment and materials to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump talked about the USMCA and its impact on the auto industry at a Dana Corp. plant in January, also in Warren, Michigan.
Praising them in tweets for offering to help out and then criticizing them to the media about not moving quickly enough for his liking and actually ordering the automaker to help out — something it was already doing.
He also commanded the company to put a new product in the now-sold Lordstown, Ohio plant, going so far as to tell residents that they would be happy with their decision to stay there and not leave as he planned to make GM sell the light.
GM sold the plant to Lordstown Motors, which is getting ready to build electric pickup trucks at the site. GM is partnering with LG Chem to produce batteries for its burgeoning electric vehicle business at a facility the two are building in Lordstown as well. President Trump has also been highly critical of GM’s business in China.
(Trump attacks GM, demands it move China auto operations “back to America.”)
Still, there are positive ties to the current administration. GM is one of several companies participating in administration programs promoting investments in worker training. So the visit by Ivanka Trump, who is leading those efforts, is part of her duties to ensure the success of the program, according to the White House.