Donald Trump clearly understands Republican primary voters — or at least he understands enough of them to be the current frontrunner in the GOP horse race for the nomination.
But he just as clearly does not understand the aerospace industry in general and specifically, the Boeing Co.
Ahead of his primary win in South Carolina on Saturday, he said that Boeing would move its North Charleston, South Carolina plant to China.
South Carolinians will wake up one day, “and all of a sudden you’re gonna be reading a big front-page story, all over the place, that Boeing is going to leave South Carolina, they’re going to make all their planes in China. Because that’s what they do,” Trump told a crowd in Walterboro, S.C., in the Palmetto state last Thursday, according to CSPAN video of the event.
Boeing can’t — and wouldn’t — just uproot airplane manufacturing. It invested about $2 billion in South Carolina since deciding to set up the second 787 line there in 2009.
Boeing has made it clear that it considers its assembly process to be part of its competitive edge. Going to China effectively would mean giving that knowledge to the Chinese aerospace industry. Boeing plans to open a 737 finishing center there. But it is expected to do the lowest-skill work required before delivery, according to industry watchers.
Manufacturing in China has made big advances in recent years in terms of its quality. Airbus even set up an A320 final assembly line there.
Nonetheless, the country still trails the West in the quality of its advanced manufacturing.
Trump’s comments also ignore the strong trend of on-shoring work in advanced manufacturing, including aerospace. For several years, manufacturing work has been returning to the U.S. from overseas because it is cheaper to do it here for a variety of reasons, including low utility rates and increasing automation. Also, labor costs are rising in many places overseas, including China.
Earlier in the campaign, Trump said his personal Boeing 757 jet is bigger than a 747.
Why bother with facts when you have swagger?
In all seriousness, Trump’s breezy relationship with facts underscores how much his appeal is about style rather than substance. His tenor, his swagger resonates with frustrated voters who feel economically and socially disempowered and are uncertain and not confident about their future prospects. That is a terrible place to be. The frustration and fear it creates is real.
And regardless of Trump’s run, his supporters’ sense of marginalization and vulnerability are facts that are not going away and must be addressed.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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