President-elect Donald Trump “lied his ass off” about the terms of the deal to keep Carrier manufacturing jobs in the United States, the Carrier union’s president said Tuesday.
United Steelworkers 1999 President Chuck Jones was optimistic when Trump first promised to save the jobs of 1,350 workers at Carrier’s Indiana plant, The Washington Post reports. Carrier had originally planned to move the jobs to Mexico, but decided to keep 730 of the jobs in Indiana after receiving $7 million in tax breaks from the state, where Vice President-elect Mike Pence is governor.
Jones told the Post that he hoped Trump would explain at a Dec. 1 meeting that 550 of the Carrier jobs weren’t saved.
“But he got up there,” Jones said, “and, for whatever reason, lied his ass off.”
At a celebratory rally last week, Trump praised the deal, telling the press, “Now they’re keeping — actually the number’s over 1,100 people,” he said, “which is so great.”
Jones said the numbers of jobs saved reported by Trump and Pence were misleading and included positions that weren’t slated to move to Mexico.
“Trump and Pence, they pulled a dog and pony show on the numbers,” Jones said. “I almost threw up in my mouth.”