From the earliest days of his campaign, Donald J. Trump made keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States his signature economic issue, and the decision by Carrier, the big air-conditioner company, to move 2,000 of them from Indiana to Mexico was a tailor-made talking point for him on the stump.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump and Mike Pence, Indiana’s governor and the vice-president elect, plan to appear at Carrier’s Indianapolis plant to announce they’ve struck a deal with the company to keep roughly half of the jobs in the state, according to officials with the transition team as well as Carrier.
TRUMP AND THE CARRIER FACTORY
In February, a video went viral showing furious workers in Indianapolis learning their jobs would be going abroad.
Good Jobs, Goodbye
When Jennifer Shanklin-Hawkins saw Donald Trump talking about the factory on the news, all she could do was shout “Yessss!” at the TV. “I loved it,” she said. “I was so happy Trump noticed us.” (March 2016)Can Trump Save Their Jobs?
The day after the election, Paul Roell headed straight to the plant before sunrise, bleary-eyed but euphoric. “I don’t watch sports, but this was my World Series,” he said. (Nov. 13, 2016)
Mr. Trump will be hard-pressed to alter the economic forces that have hammered the Rust Belt for decades, but forcing Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies, to reverse course is a powerful tactical strike that will rally his base even before he takes office.
In exchange for keeping the factory running in Indianapolis, Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence are expected to reiterate their campaign pledges to be friendlier to business by easing regulations and overhauling the corporate tax code. In addition, Mr. Trump is expected to tone down his rhetoric threatening 35 percent tariffs on companies like Carrier that shift production south of the border.
Roughly 10 percent of United Technologies’ $56 billion in revenues comes from the federal government, with the Pentagon its single largest customer. Its Pratt & Whitney division, for example, supplies the engines for the Air Force’s most advanced fighters and host of other planes.
While Carrier is best known for its air-conditioners, it also sells a variety of other heating and cooling equipment for homes and small businesses, like the furnaces and fan coils made at the Indianapolis factory.
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