Trump tells Japanese automakers to 'try' to build their cars in the U.S.

(Image credit: Toru Hanai/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 6 November 2017

President Trump asked Japanese automakers on Monday to do something they are already quite familiar with: manufacture cars and parts in the United States.

"Try building your cars in the United States instead of shipping them over," he said during a meeting in Tokyo with business executives. "That's not rude?" The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said in its 2017-18 report that in 2016, nearly 4 million vehicles and 4.7 million engines were built by its members in the U.S., and as of 2016, their manufacturing plants have cumulatively invested $45.6 billion in the U.S. economy. In 2015, JAMA said that 75 percent of Japanese cars sold in the U.S. that year were built in North America, up from 12 percent in 1985.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.