President-elect Donald Trump has blasted union leader Chuck Jones, who accused him of lying about his deal to stop air conditioning maker Carrier from moving jobs to Mexico.
Donald Trump said Chuck Jones had done a “terrible job” for workers at Carrier, moments after Jones had criticized the president-elect on CNN.
According to Chuck Jones, Donald Trump had wrongly claimed 1,100 jobs in Indiana were saved.
Earlier in the week Donald Trump attacked Boeing, hours after its boss criticized his trade policy, but he denied a link.
Shortly after Donald Trump’s tweet attacking Chuck Jones on December 7, the union leader started receiving phone calls threatening his children, he said.
Chuck Jones said: “Nothing that says they’re gonna kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids.”
Keeping jobs from migrating to lower-wage countries was a central plank of Donald Trump’s successful election campaign.
He claimed a victory last week when he struck a deal with Carrier’s parent company, granting them $7 million in tax cuts and incentives over 10 years.
In the CNN interview that preceded the enraged tweet by the president-elect, Chuck Jones disputed Donald Trump’s claim on the job figures because 550 jobs were still going overseas.
Using stronger language when speaking to the Washington Post earlier this week, Chuck Jones said Donald Trump had “lied his ass off”.
On December 8, Chuck Jones admitted his choice of words was unwise but he stood by his accusation.
“Trump didn’t tell the truth and I called him out,” he said, saying Donald Trump “overreacted”.
Chuck Jones said that while the union was grateful to have 730 of its members keeping their jobs, Donald Trump had raised false hopes for hundreds of others when he wrongly claimed 1,100 jobs were not moving abroad.
Donald Trump’s tweet sparked a back and forth on Twitter with the union, which sprang to Chuck Jones’s defense by saying he worked tirelessly to save “all jobs”.
The president-elect responded by tweeting that the union was to blame for jobs going abroad and it should reduce its dues.
The union fired back by saying its dues helped the union save jobs, adding the hashtag #imwithchuck.
The spat is the second time this week that Donald Trump has attacked an organization that has criticized him.
On December 6, he threatened to cancel a huge government contract with Boeing after the chief executive made pro-trade remarks that were reported in the Chicago Tribune.
Donald Trump said he had not seen the article in question.
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