Trump’s Favorite John Deere Story Is Totally Made Up

Surprise, surprise: Donald Trump has been lying about how he supposedly saved American jobs by threatening John Deere with tariffs.

In Trump’s telling, the farm equipment manufacturer had planned to outsource some of its production to Mexico, but abandoned the plan when Trump threatened to hit the company with tariffs.

“John Deere … announced about a year ago they’re gonna build big plants outside of the United States. Right? They’re going to build them in Mexico,” Trump told the Economic Club of Chicago Tuesday. “I said, ‘If John Deere builds those plants, they’re not selling anything into the United States.’ They just announced yesterday they’re probably not going to build the plants, OK? I kept the jobs here.”

But the company had made no such announcement, CNN reported Wednesday, finding nothing in any media reports or John Deere’s corporate releases. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to The Wall Street Journal Tuesday that they hadn’t made any such announcements or changed their plans to shift some of their production. 

CNN reached out to the Trump campaign to ask for evidence or comment on the Journal’s report, but did not receive a response. The former president is known for making false claims on days ending in “y,” but according to polls, the economy is a topic where voters trust him more than Kamala Harris.

Trump did not help his economic credentials in Chicago Tuesday, with the event’s moderator, Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait pointing out that his promises, including tariffs, would wreck the economy. He also lashed out at Micklethwait for fact-checking his outrageous claims during their interview and wasn’t able to stay on topic for many of the questions he was asked. Trump’s many made-up claims and anecdotes during the Tuesday interview seem to indicate that his ongoing cognitive decline is worsening as the election nears.