The Next 10 Companies Trump Will Trash on Twitter

Investing

Published: January 6, 2017 6:45 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 4:07 pm

President-elect Donald Trump has spent a great deal of time on Twitter attacking American companies for two reasons. One is overcharging the government for goods and services. The other is for manufacturing products overseas that he presumes can be made in the United States. In the first case, he believes he can save taxpayer dollars. In the second, he believes he can staunch the bleeding of U.S. jobs to other countries, or even bring some of them back.

Trump has already hit Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Ford, General Motors and Toyota. The following are 10 more huge U.S. public corporations Trump may well savage, based on his past tweets.

Wal-Mart

The world’s largest retailer may be the lowest hanging fruit for a Trump Twitter attack. An Economic Policy Institute report in 2015 said that, as America’s largest importer, it has killed 400,000 jobs. That is about the number of jobs the U.S. economy adds in a two-month period. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) supports 1.1 million jobs in the United States, but they are low-wage positions. Trump could argue that it is higher paid manufacturing jobs that support making products for Wal-Mart that have gone to outside countries, particularly to China.

Nike

The huge athletic shoe and apparel company keeps costs low by manufacturing products in China. Recently, Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) has cut those costs even more as it has moved jobs to Vietnam and Bangladesh. Trump has not directly attacked these two nations, yet.

Fiat Chrysler

The only one of the Big Three automakers that Trump has left alone. Last year, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) ended car production in the United States. A lot of the production has been moved to Canada and Mexico. The car company, therefore, is a good target for Trump’s attacks on NAFTA.

Mattel

Mattel Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) makes Barbie in China, Malaysia and Indonesia. That includes the “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” Wonder Woman Barbie and Ken.

General Dynamics

The 12 new Columbia-class submarines the Navy wants to order from General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) have a price tag as high as $128 billion. Trump may want a bigger Navy, but does he want to pay for it? Anything with such a huge price tag is free game for Trump on Twitter.

Intel

Where are the chip company’s wafer fabrication plants? Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) gets a partial pass, as some are in Arizona and Oregon. However, several are in China, Ireland, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Johnson & Johnson

The talc in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) baby powder comes primarily from China. Incidentally, the company has been sued over an alleged relationship between talc and ovarian cancer.

Cisco

The router company made a trade-off in 2015 that could come back to haunt it. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) said it would invest $10 billion in China, in part to create new jobs. China had removed Cisco from a list of preferred contractors for China’s businesses. Cisco needed to find a way to get that revenue back.

Google

Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) popular new Pixel smartphone has parts made by Samsung and China’s HTC. As a matter of fact, some analysts claim Pixel is nothing more than a rebranded HTC product.

IBM

The troubled tech company has outsourced jobs for years. Recent public filings show International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) has moved jobs to China, Egypt and Brazil. CEO Ginni Rometty may be a Trump advisor, but president-elect has turned on “friends” before.