Trump Praises Boycott
Many @harleydavidson owners plan to boycott the company if manufacturing moves overseas. Great! Most other companies are coming in our direction, including Harley competitors. A really bad move! U.S. will soon have a level playing field, or better.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2018
Hypocrisy Abounds
STURGIS, S.D. —The founder of Bikers for Trump is mobilizing opposition to Harley-Davidson for making bikes abroad. But he’s selling Trump T-shirts made in Haiti, because American shirts are too expensive. https://t.co/hbIMyeSxCS pic.twitter.com/WKbJ9rqdwh
— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) August 11, 2018
Wisconsin Governor Objects
Scott Walker breaks with Trump: “Of course” I don’t want a Harley-Davidson boycott https://t.co/p5nUcUBGJt pic.twitter.com/Brqur7lNdj
— The Hill (@thehill) August 14, 2018
Welcome Harley Riders
War With Harley Divides Bikers
The New York Times reports Trump’s War With Harley-Davidson Has Divided America’s Bikers.
Half-Million Riders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFfPIo93HCs
The video is interesting. Some hardcore bikers and founders of the “Fat Bastards” claim this will be their last Harley and they will buy something else next time.
“I’m riding my last Harley,” said Mr. Rathbun, 67, a retired truck driver whose bike rally essentials included a steel knife nestled in his belt, a saddle bag stuffed with a Ruger pistol and a small bottle of Jack Daniel’s cinnamon whiskey. “It was American made, and that’s why we stood behind them.”
What are they going to buy?
Are they going to burn their bikes in protest? Are they going to buy Japanese bikes instead? German? Italian? Austrian? Canadian even? You’d honestly rather boost foreign companies at the expense of an American business, than admit your tarifs are catastrophic?
— Severus🌈🇺🇸🇬🇧 (@SevereSeverus) August 14, 2018
American Made? Really?
Well…technically speaking, Harley-Davidson bikes sold in the US are not actually made here, but assembled here. Harley contracts manufacturing of parts all over the world, including Germany, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, and Mexico. So you were saying?
— Severus🌈🇺🇸🇬🇧 (@SevereSeverus) August 14, 2018
Misinformation
For the full interview, please see Harley-Davidson CEO Pushes Back on Political Criticism in Internal Memo.
Dealership View
In View From the Dealerships, George Gatto, who owns two Harley-Davidson dealerships in the Pittsburgh area, discusses how consumers have responded to Harley-Davidson’s plans to shift some production overseas.
Gatto says there is no reaction from customers. Color me unsurprised.
Fat Bastard Hypocrites
Trump tariffs would have cost Harley $9 million a month.
What would the Fat Bastards have done if they owned Harley?
They would have done just what Harley did: Start assembling motorcycles in the EU.
No Deal
Please see Trump’s Lies Won’t Make Farmers Great Again: There Was No Deal on Agriculture.
And consider my follow-up Hey Mr. Juncker, About That Bean Order?
Business is business: Trump Tariffs Crush Small Businesses: “We Are at the Limit”, Optimism Sinks
Trump is to blame, not Harley.
Reader Comment
The only competition for Harley is foreign manufacturers that completely build their bikes abroad. So he is effectively sacrificing an American firm to its foreign competitors.
This simply makes the point that if you announce something that embarrasses Trump, he’ll come after you, no matter whether or not it advances his policy objectives.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Mish asks: “What are they going to buy?” DUH: very simple they will buy Indian motorcycles, now backed by a well established company (Polaris) and made in Spirit Lake Iowa.
My first thought as well. But perhaps the same response to tariffs as Harley, link to bit.ly
Kind of doubt Indians 100% made in America. Most references I find are assembled in USA. Marketeers would surely be pounding the table with manufactured right here in the USA were that true.
Everyone has lost their mind. Not that long ago when nafta was created we were allowing Asia to import products at a fraction of what we could produce them. This happened across all industries so instead of fair trade protection we joined them. Well the end result is a low middle class mfg. sector. Now were upset? Harley is an anomaly producing pleasure bikes for weekenders. There are hundreds of cheaper bike builders in the US. Harley should move overseas like all the others. Harley is just a brand like McDonalds, Apple, Amazon.
The reason 67 year old, retired truck driver fat bastards have bought their last Harley, is because those a lot closer to Trump than they are, have stolen the money they were suckered into believing they “paid in” to some “retirement” racket. Their particular feelings about Trump’s latest obfuscatory tweets, have exactly not one iota to do with it, whatsoever.
Also, that Ruger is about as effective against whatever army Trump can deploy to ensure the robbing continues “peacefully” and unabated; as a retired truck driver is, versus the lobbying army those who robbed him can deploy, at getting any government’s ear.
Pains me to inform you of this, Fat Bastard, but you spent your life proudly riding around waving the flag of a country which died 150 years ago. Kind of sucks, but then again government, as well as any faith in it whatsoever, always end up sucking.
I’ve been fortunate to be mentored by a few great Boomers over the years, but as an overall demographic they’re generally clueless. They’re old enough to remember when banks were banks and the country functioned much more smoothly, but when things started to go sour they made a series of head scratching choices.
They generally fell into two camps, one where they simply ignored what was happening and told themselves everything would be fine. The other sounded the alarm and started fighting a nonsensical culture war. Fed devaluing your money? Start fighting against abortion. Factories closing down? Start a petition to put prayer back in public school. That’s how it was where I grew up, and even as a teenager it all seemed harebrained.
Nowadays they look like dinosaurs, much like the true believer old communists did as the USSR fell. Still, it’s difficult to feel sorry for them when they led much better lives than subsequent generations will.
Trump’s idiotic tariffs leave them, and other US manufacturers who use steel, aluminum, and chips in their products, to move production overseas. He causes it, them blames people for doing what he forced them to do.
can’t blame Harley,all their parts are Chinese/Taiwan/Mexican,why not assembl it all over there like every other manufacturer,do the math>>2 dollars (zero bennies) an hour in china compared to 12 dollars an hour and bennies here.
I had a Harley. I think my next will be an Indian because Harley Davidson itself thinks H1-Bs from India are better than Americans for their IT department. If HD says Indians are better than their own homegrown employees, who am I to argue.
Now how can we outsource innane market and political commentary to Bangalore like they do customer service call centers?
Would be curious to hear what businesses you support if you don’t like H1Bs. I’m an IT guy and I have to think back to around the Y2K period to remember when I wasn’t around lots of H1Bs.
I even worked at a company that subcontracted sensitive geospatial data from the government. Even there, IT was mostly foreign, they found a way to exempt us from security clearance requirements. However, I got secret clearance which meant I got to do extra work. Yippee.
Just for reference, I left that job in 2005. H1Bs have only become more prevalent since then.
The Harley-Davidson demographic is getting up there in years. I think they are on a downward slide due to the age of the riders as opposed to bikes being manufactured offshore. Management will do what they can in the best interests of the company for the near term however short sided it may be (extend & pretend). The best days of Harley are in the rear view mirror.