MOLINE, Ill. — Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump attended a campaign event in Pennsylvania Monday night that consisted of a roundtable where farmers and manufacturers expressed their concerns about the farming industry.
It was here that the former president threatened the farming company John Deere with strict tariffs.
"As you know, they've announced a few days ago that they are going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico," Trump said. "I am just notifying John Deere right now that if you do that, we are putting a 200% tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States."
It comes after John Deere announced back in June that they plan to relocate some production lines in Dubuque to new plants in Mexico by 2026. Trump disagreed with this plan to spread production and import John Deere products back into the U.S.
"They think they're going to make product cheaper in Mexico and then sell it in for the same price as they did before. Make a lot of money by getting rid of our labor and our jobs," Trump said.
John Deere said they had no comment on Trump's plan at this time, but they reiterated their $2.5 billion mission to continue enhancing manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
John Deere has recently laid off a total of 2,400 employees over the last several months: 801 in Illinois and 1,599 in Iowa. But the company will have to wait until the results of the upcoming election come in to see if Trump's promise comes to fruition.
