Here’s what Trump said about child and auto worker jobs

Three weeks before Election Day 2024, US Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign highlighted a remark made by former President Donald Trump during a sit-down interview at the Economic Club of Chicago in Illinois on October 15, 2024.

While talking about bringing jobs back to the US and recalling a conversation with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump mentioned to his interviewer: John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, the names of several automakers, particularly a Mercedes-Benz plant in Charleston, South Carolina, and said that their autoworkers don’t so much “build” vehicles as they “assemble” them “from a box.” He added: “We could leave it to a child.”

Trump’s exact quote was:

I said to Angela Merkel when she was there, she is no longer there. I wonder why. But when she was there, I said, “Angela, how many Chevrolets do we have in Berlin?” “Why Donald, we don’t have any.” I said, “That’s right. How many Fords do we have in Frankfurt?” “I don’t know. None.” I said, “That’s right. You know how many cars we have, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, all Volkswagens, millions and millions of cars.” And then I said: “Farm products.” They don’t want anything from us.

And we have deficits that are crazy and we won’t have them anymore. We’re going to put tariffs on them, and they’re going to do, you know what they can do? The Mercedes-Benz will begin construction in the United States, and they have a bit of it. But do you know what they really are? Assembly, as in South Carolina. But they build everything in Germany and then assemble it here. They get away with murder because they say, “Oh yeah, we build cars.” They don’t build cars. You take them out of a box and put them together. We could leave it to a child.

BMW – another German automaker – also operates the BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in Greer, South Carolina. The plant website said the facilities assemble a variety of different cars.

Readers can read the entire interview transcript on Rev.com and watch the session in this C-SPAN video. The comment in question begins at 14:22.

Response to the Harris campaign

On the same day as Trump’s interview with the Economic Club of Chicago, the Harris campaign’s rapid response account posted an 18-second video from the event on X, specifically focusing on Trump’s remark about vehicle assembly.

The Harris Campaign post (archived) read: “Trump denigrates auto workers by saying they simply assemble parts ‘out of a box’ and says kids can do their job: ‘We could let our kid do it’.”

However, that video omitted the first part of the sentence, in which Trump expressed that his remark concerned the Charleston-based Mercedes-Benz plant. The clip also left out the context of the discussion with Merkel, showing Trump’s distaste for his view of other countries’ trade levels.

In the short video posted by the Harris campaign account, Trump said only: “United States, and they have a little. But do you know what they really are? Assembly, as in South Carolina. But they build everything in Germany and then put it together here. They get away with murder because they say, “Oh yeah, we build cars.” They don’t build cars. You take them out of a box and put them together. We could leave it to a child.

Three days later, on October 18, the @kamalahq account highlighted the fact that Harris spoke about the matter during this addressing the media before a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan (archived). In her comments, she claimed that Trump’s remark about auto workers’ jobs at the Mercedes-Benz plant in South Carolina also applied to auto workers in Michigan. Trump mentioned Michigan during the interview, but not in the same line of questioning as the comment in question.

She said: “We are once again faced with a situation where the former President is insulting the people of the state by this time telling auto workers that their important, good and highly skilled work can be done by a child, which only goes further.” Proof that Donald Trump is coming from a place where he really doesn’t appreciate or understand how most people in our country work very hard for everything they have and that great things go into their work Dignity is stuck.”

We reached out to the Trump campaign via email to ask about the Harris campaign’s messaging regarding the former president’s comment at the Economic Club of Chicago and will update this story if we receive a response.

Responses from Mercedes-Benz, Trump Campaign and BMW

On October 18, the Charleston newspaper The Post and Courier reported that the Mercedes-Benz plant in the area assembles Sprinter vans. LaKashia Johnson, communications manager for Mercedes-Benz Vans Charleston, told the newspaper that since 2018, workers at the plant have been assembling the vehicles piece by piece rather than just from a box. “You couldn’t get a kid to put these vans together,” Johnson said. We contacted Johnson via email asking for more details but have not yet received a response.

The article also included a response from a Trump campaign spokesman:

Rachel Reisner, the Trump campaign’s director of regional communications, told The Post and Courier that Trump’s “sensible trade policies” would bring millions of additional jobs to the country, on top of the thousands already in South Carolina.

“President Trump wants to expand manufacturing in America to keep our jobs and create more jobs for American workers,” Reisner said.

Meanwhile, WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, South Carolina, reported that Nathalie Bauters, head of corporate communications for BMW Manufacturing, issued a statement without mentioning Trump by name:

The BMW Group Plant Spartanburg is proud of its 30-year history in South Carolina. We have an 8 million square foot facility with three body shops, two paint shops and two assembly shops. We recently added a metal stamping facility to produce body parts. These technologically advanced manufacturing operations represent an investment of more than $13 billion. Our 11,000 highly skilled employees produce 1,500 finished vehicles daily – and 400,000 each year – using parts from hundreds of suppliers across the United States. Our BMW X models are among the most complex vehicles in the world and are sought after by customers everywhere. The Spartanburg plant has been one of the largest automobile exporters in the United States by value over the past decade, with exports valued at $10.1 billion. We export more vehicles from the US than we import into the country. The Spartanburg plant creates a total economic impact of $26.7 billion for our state while supporting nearly 43,000 jobs and $3.1 billion in wages and salaries.

Response from state and local officials

Local reports from The Post and Courier, WSPA-TV and the Columbia, South Carolina-based newspaper The State included additional reactions from state and local officials.

For example, The State published a quote from South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s office:

Brandon Charochak, a spokesman for S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, said Trump’s goal is to make more parts in the state and bring more manufacturing into the country.

“The talent of South Carolina’s autoworkers is undeniable and has been instrumental in attracting the world’s best automakers to our state,” Charochak said.

Locally, The Post and Courier reported that Trump’s comment “upset” a Republican city councilman:

Spartanburg County Councilman David Britt, a Republican, was upset by Trump’s comments. Addressing the former president, he said Trump was playing politics with people’s lives and invited him to help assemble a BMW car.

“I’ll let (Trump) put one of the windows in if he thinks an elementary school student or a child could do it,” Britt said. “I guarantee you he can’t.”

We have contacted several sources mentioned in this story and will update this article if we receive further details.