Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at a farm, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Smithton, Pennsylvania.
Alex Brandon | AP
Former President Donald Trump threatened on Monday John Deere With a 200% tariff imposed if agricultural manufacturers moved their production to their factories in Mexico.
“They announced a few days ago that they are going to move a lot of their manufacturing to Mexico,” the Republican candidate said at a policy roundtable in Smithton, Pennsylvania, organized by the Protect America Initiative.
“I've just put John Deere on notice: If you do this, we will put a 200% tariff on everything you want to sell into the United States,” said Trump, who made tariffs a key economic policy focus of his election campaign.
John Deere has announced that it plans to move production of some of its models to Mexico, a move that has led to layoffs at its Iowa facilities.
“This is hurting our farmers and it's hurting our industry,” Trump said Monday.
In a comment to CNBC, a John Deere spokesperson pointed to a page on its website titled “John Deere’s Commitment to Manufacturing in the U.S.,” where it touts its investments in American factories and workers.
The page also states: “In order for our U.S. plants to perform these high-value-added activities, it is sometimes necessary to move less complex operations, such as taxi assembly, to other locations.”
Monday appears to have been the first time Trump has specifically criticized John Deere. The former president’s comments appeared to be off-the-cuff, and were made only because of the John Deere tractors that served as a backdrop to the event.
By 6 p.m. ET, Deere shares were down 1.7% in after-hours trading. Trump made the threat shortly after the market closed.
The former president made similar threats on Monday to automakers that build cars in Mexico.
“We're going to put a huge tariff on those cars coming here, 100% to 200%, and they're not going to be competitive anymore, so they better stay in Michigan,” he said.
