Lingua Trumpii Mendacis
I made this photo with Grok
Politicians lie.
And America has a long history of lying presidents.
Sometimes those presidents lied under the pretence of protecting their constituents.
Sometimes those presidents lied to protect themselves.
No president has lied as much as The Donald.
During Trump 1.0, the Washington Post tracked and reported that Donny made 30,573 false or misleading claims over those four years.
During Trump 2.0, the Washington Post gave up tracking it.
As Donny repeated his false or misleading claims, this corresponded with increased belief among Republicans that those claims were true.
Ruh-roh!
This Is Not Normal
Speaking at a Baltimore shipyard earlier this week, The Donald credited his administration with bringing automakers back from at least five countries and painted a picture of historic automotive plant construction in the United States.
That was a lie.
He also said that the US had not built a car plant for 44 years and is now building more than ever.
That’s also a lie.
An AP fact-check found that more than two dozen major US vehicle assembly plants opened in the past four decades.
It also counted 51 US light-vehicle assembly plants in 2026, compared with 52 five years earlier.
The White House released a list of more than $50 billion in automaker investments and credited The Donald’s tariff and trade agenda with them.
The list includes batteries, research, suppliers and projects that began well before the current tariffs.
More lies.
Contrary to The Donald’s claims, investment announcements are not the same thing as new factories.
Sure, Hyundai opened its Georgia Metaplant.
And yes, Rivian finally broke ground on a second factory in Georgia.
Mazda/Toyota in Alabama and Volvo in South Carolina were all included in the White House’s list.
These are real projects.
But they did not begin with the current tariffs, and they do not demonstrate a sudden factory boom caused by The Donald’s 4D chess playing.
Super Duty, Super Margins
Ford’s F-Series Super Duty
Contrary to The Donald’s plan to shut down Canadian auto manufacturing, Automotive News reported that Ford and GM have each committed more than $1 billion to Canadian operations through their recently negotiated Unifor agreements.
Both companies are keeping their options open; they appear to understand that policies change, and vehicle production plans are long-term bets.
Ford’s Oakville Super Duty plan was announced in July 2024, before the current tariff threat.
Ford plans to build up to 100,000 F-Series Super Duty pick-up trucks a year in Oakville because its Kentucky and Ohio plants are already at capacity.
F-Series Super Duty is one of its most profitable vehicles.
The company said the expansion would initially secure about 1,800 jobs in Oakville and add roughly 150 jobs at the Windsor Engine Complex.
Ford Authority reports that Ford of Canada built 300 pre-production Super Duty pick-ups in September, 50 fewer than August, and 903 so far this year.
The same report says that full-scale production has been pushed back and might start in early 2027.
GM is also redirecting Canadian production to high-margin truck manufacturing. It says it will end light-duty Silverado 1500 production in Oshawa in November 2026, increase heavy-duty Silverado production and retool the plant for GMC Sierra HD by 2028.
These decisions give Ford and GM more capacity for profitable pick-ups.
They help protect plants and jobs.
They do not remove the cost of tariffs on trucks, parts, or engines that cross the border.
But with the available margin in those vehicles, both OEMs are better able to suffer through the storm of lies that The Donald is spewing.
Meanwhile, In Windsor
Then there’s Stellantis.
Stellantis says it no longer sees a long-term business case for its Brampton Assembly plant.
Brampton has been idle since 2023, when the planned Jeep Compass program moved to the US, leaving about 2,200 workers without a clear return date.
Stellantis says unpredictable trade policy, regulation, and affordability pressure shaped its decision.
Sure, okay.
Unifor says it will not accept a settlement that makes the wider agreement conditional on closing and selling Brampton.
The union also says Stellantis has not confirmed its plans for Windsor Assembly or Etobicoke Casting.
Unifor remains at an impasse with Stellantis and is planning for a strike vote on October 17 and 18.
This Sucks
Canadian vehicle production fell about 15% during the first 12 months of the US tariffs.
US vehicle exports to Canada fell by roughly 20%.
The Economic Policy Institute put US manufacturing employment 62,000 below its January 2025 level, even after a 5,000-job gain in July.
That is manufacturing as a whole, not a measure of the auto sector alone.
And there were about 43,000 fewer US motor-vehicle-and-parts manufacturing workers in September 2026 than in March 2025.
Those figures do not support the claim that tariffs have created a broad boom in US auto jobs.
At the same time, while Ford and GM have found a path forward, Canada and the US remain at an impasse on major trade issues, including the treatment of medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
IMHO
The Donald isn’t good at math.
He isn’t good at the truth either.
And I don’t believe he can play any sort of chess, 4D or otherwise.
He’s treating Canada as an outside competitor, even though Canadian plants, parts, and engines are built into vehicles sold in the United States by American companies for American consumers.
It is dumb (with a “b,” and everyone knows how to fucking spell it).
Ford and GM are “working the problem” by focusing on Super Duty and heavy-duty pick-up trucks.
That approach can keep their plants busy while politicians do their politicking.
That’s a response to the reality of capacity and margins. It is not proof that tariffs are “working.”
A trade policy that makes trucks, parts, and investment decisions more expensive and more complicated is not an effective industrial strategy.
It is a tax on an industry that has its own problems and didn’t need to add dealing with an orange lying sack of shit to the list.