Republican President Donald Trump recently said, “The assault on the American auto industry, believe me, is over. It’s over. Not going to have it anymore. . . .”

This is a lie. The auto industry is not under assault. The auto industry was bailed out through the efforts of President Barack Obama.  I guess Trump has forgotten that back in 2009, the auto industry was on the verge of collapse. GM and Chrysler were bankrupt. Ford was in better shape thanks to the fortuitous timing of it crafting a huge debt restructuring and loans prior to The Great Recession. But literally the entire auto industry was just a few weeks away from a total collapse without big loans that no one was willing to make.

The auto industry had many problems including huge debt and a reliance on the profits of big vehicles that suddenly were not in demand with gasoline at $4.00 per gallon. So they retooled and improved their product lines. They focused on making fuel efficient cars profitable so they wouldn’t be so dependent upon large vehicles that get poor mileage.

The auto industry also worked with the government to establish new fuel efficiency and emissions standards so that our air would be cleaner and we could use less fuel.

There has not been an assault on the auto industry. This is yet another outrageous lie.