Mark Cuban has continued his attacks on Donald Trump by calling the former president’s new tariff threat “insane.”
Cuban reposted a video of Trump speaking in front of farmers in Pennsylvania. At the event, Trump pointed at some John Deere tractors and said that if they moved their business to Mexico he would place a 200 percent tariff on them.
To which Cuban responded: “This Lack of Understanding of Business is insane.”
The new policy proposal from Trump of raising a 200 percent tariff on American businesses abroad does not appear on his current website.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign for comment via email.
Trump said he was unsure if John Deere had already moved its operations to Mexico, or if it was merely planning on doing that.
A video posted 11 days ago on John Deere’s YouTube page shows Fabio Castro, VP and factory manager of the company’s Waterloo Works plant, saying that it is moving its cab manufacturing facility to its factory in Mexico.
Mark Cuban, a vocal critic of Trump’s economic policies, at Crypto.com Arena on April 21, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. He has once again criticized the Republican presidential candidate.
Allen Berezovsky/Getty images
A spokesperson for John Deere told Newsweek: “Deere is constantly reviewing production efficiencies and product/component moves to optimize manufacturing floor space in the U.S. and to leverage the highly skilled production workforce in the U.S. to build our most innovative new machines like the 9RX.” The 9RX is a type of tractor.
Per the Des Moines Register, John Deere laid off over 300 employees in Waterloo, Iowa, the home of its largest tractor production factory, on April 26, 2024.
Many of these layoffs, according to John Deere, stem from current reduced demand for its equipment and an economic forecast showing a 24 percent drop in net farmer income for 2024.
A press release on John Deere’s site says: “Since 2019, John Deere has invested more than $2 billion in our American factories, including our new See & Spray line at Des Moines Works in Des Moines, Iowa, the X9 combine assembly line at Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois, a new excavator factory in Kernersville, North Carolina and new tractor line assemblies in Waterloo.
“In order to position our U.S. factories to undertake these highly value-additive activities it is sometimes necessary to move less complex operations, such as cab assembly, to other locations.
“This includes moving the production of some models of our skid steer loaders and compact loaders to our factory in Mexico, a facility that has been an important part of our global operation for nearly 70 years.”
Trump added in his recent speech to farmers that this tariff would be placed on any other company that “does this,” as they are “getting rid of our labor and our jobs.”
Trump said that the threat of these tariffs would force companies to stay in the United States. However, he added that the companies may end up selling to other countries, which Trump said “they’re entitled to do.”
Donald Trump, next to NY Representative Lee Zeldin, speaking at the Pennsylvania event where he discussed the new tariffs, on September 23, 2024, in Smithton, Pennsylvania.
Win McNamee/Getty images
Trump was speaking in front of a banner that read “protect our food from China.”
Cuban pointed out in his X repose that Trump is planning on putting a 10 or 20 percent tariff on Chinese manufacturers. Cuban said “Chinese products will be cheaper to sell in the US than the American company,” speaking about the difference between the proposed tariff on Deere.
Cuban added: “Good way to destroy a legendary American company and increase costs to American buyers.”
In the clip, Trump added that he’s one of John Deere’s biggest customers.
He said: “I buy a lot of John Deere products as a private person, but if they’re going to do that we’re going to put a 200 percent tariff on everything that they want to send back into the United States.”
