In his farewell speech to the Democratic National Convention Monday evening, lame duck President Joe Biden tripled down yet again on the false claim that Donald Trump is calling for a national “bloodbath” if he doesn’t get elected in November. It is an irresponsible, inflammatory claim that is beneath the office of the U.S. presidency.
As a reminder, that is a reference to a speech Trump delivered in Dayton, Ohio in March, where he was speaking to workers in the auto industry. Here is the full context of what he said:
"We're gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line and you're not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected. Now if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath- that's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars."
The truth is that Trump’s predicted auto industry “bloodbath” has already begun to arrive, as I have pointed out in several previous pieces here. Outside of Tesla, the heavily subsidized electric vehicles sector is in a state of collapse, and the losses from EV divisions are doing great harm to the profitability of integrated carmakers like Ford and GM. This is no longer even arguable – it simply is what it is.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Energy Transition Absurdities to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.