Trump threatens to cut GM subsidies in retaliation for US job cuts

Workers discussing "Mass Actions"

Trump also criticized GM for not closing facilities in Mexico or China.

"General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) - don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s Workers!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

GM currently builds just one vehicle in China that it exports to the United States - the Buick Envision and has sold about 22,000 through September. GM sold nearly 2.7 million vehicles in China through September, nearly all of them built in China for the market.

White House spokesman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that the president is looking at options.

"The president wants to see American companies build cars here in America not build them overseas and he is hopeful that GM will continue to do that here," she said.

GM has been lobbying Congress, along with Tesla Inc , to lift the current cap on electric vehicles eligible for tax credits, but any action by Congress before 2019 is a long-shot, congressional aides said.

Under current law, once a manufacturer sells 200,000 electric vehicles, the tax credit phases out starting in the following quarter. GM has said it expects to hit the 200,000-vehicle threshold by the end of the year and Tesla hit the cap in July.

In Canada, workers returned to the assembly line at General Motors' Oshawa, Ontario, plant on Tuesday, as their union president met with Prime Minister Trudeau and said he was ready for "mass actions" at GM facilities.

GM said on Monday that the Oshawa plant would close in December 2019.

"We're dealing with a corporation that doesn't have any respect for Canadian and American workers, and I think we should treat them in the same vein," said Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, which represents GM workers in Canada.

Dias said he would meet with the United Auto Workers on Wednesday and discuss the possibility of "mass actions" in GM plants across the two countries. Dias floated the idea of a tariff on GM vehicles built in Mexico, saying a 40 percent tariff would get the company's attention.

Reuters