Businessman Mark Cuban criticized Donald Trump‘s comments on the auto industry in a new post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Cuban’s criticism of Trump followed the former president’s appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago Tuesday, where he discussed foreign production of cars and said, “They build everything in Germany and then they assemble it here, they get away with murder because they say, ‘Oh yes we’re building cars.’ They don’t build cars, they take them out of a box, and they assemble them, we could have our child do it.”
A clip of him making the statement was posted by Kamala Harris‘ campaign account, and re-shared by Cuban who wrote, “He still thinks it’s 1965. It’s obvious he has no idea what it takes to manufacture any advanced product, car or otherwise.”
Businessman Mark Cuban speaking at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in 2016 in Detroit, Michigan. Cuban has recently voiced his criticism of Donald Trump’s comments about manufacturing on X.
Paul Sancya/Associated Press
The entrepreneur’s post on X gained over 40,000 likes, 7,000 reposts, and 3,400 comments.
While some in the replies supported and echoed Cuban’s view, others criticized him and said that his comment indicated that he had not watched the interview in full.
One user who goes by Storm, wrote, “Hey Mark, 13 years in the automotive industry here. You probably don’t know this because owning basketball team doesn’t require you to manufacture any physical products but Trump is describing knock down manufacturing which is a process invented by automotive OEMs to avoid paying import taxes by shipping kits of pre-manufactured parts and modules for fast and easy final assembly in a vehicle’s destination country. Hope this helps.”
Another user, NYC Conservative, wrote, “You couldn’t make it more clear that you didn’t actually watch the interview.”
A user who goes by Sold at the Top wrote, “That’s not the point. He’s arguing for more than mere assembly happen in the US. A plant that just does the “final mile” is NOT truly “Made in the USA”. He wants US manufacturing to be restored creating jobs for more Americans… can you really argue with that?”
Cuban responded to the latter reply and wrote, “I know what he wants. But he has no idea what it takes to do it. Why not just pass a law that ALL MANUFACTURING has to be done in the USA within 10 years? When you put crazy tariffs on every import, that is effectively what he is trying to do The difference between using laws and tariffs is that as POTUS he can set tariffs. Laws have to be passed. And this would never get passed Thats how crazy his approach is.”
Newsweek reached out to Cuban and the Trump campaign for comment via email outside of business hours.
Trump’s comments about the decline of the American auto industry follow his appearance at the Detroit Economic Club on October 10, where he also alluded to the industry’s collapse in the Michigan city.
Predicting impending economic disaster if Kamala Harris wins, the former president said, “You want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit — our whole country will be, like end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.”
Often a critic of Trump, Cuban, best known for being an investor on the show Shark Tank, has engaged in online debates with Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the election, as Musk supports Trump, and recently said that a second Trump term would be “worse” than his first.
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