Taken for a ride by GM: Trump and his promises to Rust Belt workers

Trump's 2020 map gets carjacked

At a rally in northeastern Ohio last year, President Donald Trump told voters whose support gave him a victory in the Buckeye State that their faith would be rewarded.

The jobs that left are "all coming back," he promised. "They’re all coming back. Don’t move. Don’t sell your house." In August, he tweeted before a Michigan rally: "Lots of car and other companies moving back!"

On Monday, General Motors announced plans to lay off about 14,000 factory and white-collar workers and close four U.S. plants, including one in Warren, Ohio, and two in Michigan — another state that went for Trump in 2016. Among other reasons, GM cited slow sales for the made-in-Ohio Chevrolet Cruze.

Ohio Democrats charged Trump and Republicans in Congress gave away billions to GM and got nothing back for U.S. workers.

“The company reaped a massive tax break from last year’s GOP tax bill and failed to invest that money in American jobs,” Sen. Sherrod Brown tweeted. A former Democratic Ohio Senate leader, Capri Cafaro, told The Washington Post that residents “may not blame Trump for [the plant] closing specifically, but they will blame him" in 2020 "for not saving it.”

He knows. Trump told reporters he was "very tough" in a phone call Sunday night with GM CEO Mary Barra. "They say the Chevy Cruze is not selling well.  I say, "Well, then . . . get a car that is selling well and put it back in." He added, "They better put something else in." He also told Barra, "You’re playing around with the wrong person,’” according to an interview Trump gave to The Wall Street Journal.

Sounds like a threat. Now he has to find a way to back it up.

New pall over Manafort

Special counsel Robert Mueller charges former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort with lying to federal investigators in the Russia probe, breaching a plea agreement that could have gotten him a lighter sentence after he was convicted of financial fraud.

“After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel’s Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement,” Mueller's court filings said. It was unclear whether those matters are close to the Trump-centered parts of the Mueller investigation. Either way, something real or perceived about the probe prompted Trump early on Tuesday to launch a new, particularly personal and muddled rant against Mueller.

Janison: Disbelief system

No one seems to trust the government less than the guy who leads it, notes Newsday's Dan Janison. Trump on Monday finally gave his personal verdict on the dire climate change report produced by 13 federal agencies from the work of more than 1,000 people, including top scientists from inside and outside government: "I don't believe it."

It's just the latest example of Trump's unshakable belief in what and who he chooses to believe, often for convenience's sake. Just last week, Trump decided to contend that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman might be telling the truth when he denied orchestrating the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, never mind findings to the contrary by the CIA. 

And of course, in the face of overwhelming evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Trump found Vladimir Putin's denials “incredibly strong and powerful."

A Saudi desert mirage

 Trump has offered a variety of rationales for going easy on the Saudis, including this one: The oil kingdom is buying $110 billion of military equipment from the United States.

The number is bogus. ABC News reports it was conjured up last year at the direction of Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner to symbolically solidify the new alliance between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia when the president visited Riyadh last year. The actual figure for deals more or less done is $14.5 billion.

Taking Trumpaganda global

Fox News has been derided as state-run TV for its cozy relationship with Trump, but the president's favorite network has little reach outside the United States. CNN International is the dominant American TV news channel abroad. So Trump has an idea to fight the network he hates most: U.S. government-funded competition.

"Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States [he means Trump] in an unfair . . . and false way," Trump tweeted. "Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we [he means Trump] really are, GREAT!"

Perhaps Trump forgot that there already is a government-funded broadcaster aimed at a world audience. The Voice of America, founded in 1942, produces digital, TV and radio content.

Sounds of silence

Trump's Twitter account went conspicuously quiet about Russia firing upon and seizing three Ukrainian vessels near Crimea on Sunday.

When he finally spoke during an exchange with reporters before flying off to rallies in Mississippi, Trump avoided criticizing Moscow.

"Not happy about it at all," he said, adding, "We do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out." The tougher talk was left to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called the clash a "reckless escalation," and said Russia must "cease its unlawful conduct and respect the navigational rights and freedoms of all states."

Tear gas gaslighting

Trump on Monday denied that federal agents along the US-Mexico border used tear gas on child migrants, but photos and videos show women and children migrants were among those caught up in an incident between border agents and a migrant group that rushed a border crossing Sunday, CNN reported.

Trump said that border agents "had to use [force] because they were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas." Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said agents were responding to primarily adult males throwing rocks.

BuzzFeed found a Honduran woman who was seen grabbing her daughters and running in a widely published photo. “I thought my kids were going to die with me because of the gas we inhaled,” Maria Meza said.

The latest migrations are causing political strains for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico's incoming president, that could affect U.S. policies. Trump also sought to stir the crisis at a rally, with a clear lie about three border agents having been seriously hurt in a rock-throwing melee.

What else is happening:

• Rep. Eliot Engel, the Bronx Democrat expected to become House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman in January, told USA Today he is planning aggressive oversight of Trump's Russia and Saudi relationships. 
• Members of Trump's immediate family also will be likely targets for congressional inquiries next year, The New York Times reports. Matters of interest include actions during the 2016 campaign and whether family businesses improperly profited from Trump's election. Even Republicans want to investigate Ivanka Trump's use of personal email for government business.
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who says she's thinking about a 2020 challenge to Trump, faces resistance from major would-be donors, Politico reports. They accuse her of a "rush to judgment" in leading calls for the resignation of Minnesota Sen. Al Franken earlier this year amid sexual misconduct allegations.
• Sen. Bernie Sanders tells New York magazine he would stand aside for 2020 "if there’s somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me." But "if it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run.”
• Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also mulling a run as a Democrat, will visit Iowa next week, according to the Des Moines Register. He donated at least $250,000 to the Iowa Democratic Party ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
• Trump, at a rally in Tupelo, Mississippi. for GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, said, "Other than the blond hair, when I was growing up they said I looked like Elvis." Tupelo was the birthplace of Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll.
• Christmas decoration at the White House took an unusual turn. First lady Melania Trump didn't appear for the annual unveiling, and a forest of red trees lined the East Colonnade, provoking online snark.