Too little, too late. South Carolina’s leaders failed to stand up for us | Opinion
I want to start with a simple principle: If I beat you up then pick you up, don’t hold me up.
Be upset.
Yes, this is a column about President Donald Trump and his administration’s careless, callous approach to tariffs, which sent South Carolina’s economy stumbling, markets and 401(k)s tumbling and U.S. business leaders fumbling for their footing while ripping up business plans — until Trump authorized a 90-day stay Wednesday on tariffs on imports from anywhere but China, which sent markets shooting up — until the trade war with China sent them back down Thursday.
This past week was a whirlwind. Let’s review what happened and why South Carolinians should be so mad at their state’s political leaders and grateful for a county councilman named David Britt.
On Sunday, Peter Navarro, one of Trump’s trade advisors, vilified one of South Carolina’s most important industries, the auto industry, which has ballooned to 500 companies in the last three decades since BMW built its first factory outside Germany in Spartanburg County in 1992.
“This business model where BMW and Mercedes come into Spartansburg, South Carolina, [sic] and have us assemble German engines and Austrian transmissions, that doesn’t work for America,” Navarro said on CNBC. “It’s bad for our economics. It’s bad for our national security.”
Yes, Navarro said “Spartansburg” and said Mercedes-Benz was there, too. It’s not. That plant is in Charleston County, 200 miles away. But while his general grasp of South Carolina geography is poor, his general view of the Palmetto State is dangerous.
More than 75,000 people work in South Carolina’s auto industry, which is the state’s largest exporter. Michelin has made tires here for 50 years; no state produces more. BMW employs 11,000 people; Mercedes-Benz employs 1,700. BMW has invested nearly $15 billion in the state since 1992; Mercedes-Benz has invested at least half a billion dollars in the past decade.
Yet Navarro’s words didn’t come from nowhere. In the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump himself said something similar: “(T)hey build everything in Germany, and then they assemble it here. They get away with murder because they say, ‘Oh, yes, we’re building cars.’ They don’t build cars. They take them out of a box and they assemble them. We could have our child do it.”
Navarro and Trump are simply wrong. This business model works wonders for South Carolina. The intricate international relationship has been transformative and extremely positive. Yet you would barely know that from the state’s most prominent politicians who dodged questions from reporters and dotted social media with milquetoast comments in the wake of Navarro’s attack.
To his credit, Rep. William Timmons did speak out. Hours after Navarro’s comments, he made two major points in a long tweet. He wrote, “President Trump is doing incredible work to strengthen American manufacturing and make America great again.” and he wrote, “I can assure you that BMW IS good for South Carolina AND America.” Timmons would be wise to take a more nuanced approach to Trump’s bumpy tariffs, but at least he weighed in immediately.
In contrast, Sen. Lindsey Graham waited 48 hours to tweet this after Navarro’s insult: “BMW has been in South Carolina for over 30 years and has proven to be one of the best corporate citizens in our state. Their presence is a major benefit to the South Carolina economy and it is much appreciated.” There was no mention of, let alone pushback on, Trump’s tariffs at all.
Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace offered an admonishment instead of advocacy for the state: “President Trump has brought lower prices at the pump, lowered inflation, created hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and got trillions in foreign investment pouring into our economy. Meanwhile the Left has decided they are self-proclaimed economists. Give me a break.”
Gov. Henry McMaster finally spoke up Wednesday, too. He shared a video of a new interview where he spoke highly of BMW and wrote on Twitter that, “BMW is a great company that has done a lot of good for South Carolina. Since they arrived in 1992, others have followed — sending the word out around the world that South Carolina is the state for manufacturing.”
In January, McMaster gave the company the highest praise a governor can, saying, “BMW’s arrival in South Carolina over 30 years ago transformed our economy and global reputation.”
Why couldn’t he have said that earlier this week? Why couldn’t he have said that to Trump?
It might have changed things sooner.
Wednesday afternoon, Trump paused his global tariffs, instituting a 90-day pause after stocks tanked and people started to sell off bonds, typically a safe haven for investors.
Hours later, Sen. Tim Scott safely posted this on social media, taking a late, half-step in solidarity with South Carolinians that should have come sooner and more forcefully: “I’m committed to supporting President Trump’s America First agenda and ensuring our trading partners aren’t taking advantage of us. The truth is simple: the men and women of South Carolina are some of the smartest and hardest working people in the world. This is why BMW has chosen to invest billions of dollars in the Upstate, which has a significant positive economic impact on the state of South Carolina and our nation. Any suggestions to the contrary are ridiculous.”
As if these late and lame defenses of such a cog in the South Carolina economy weren’t bad enough, Mace offered none, defending Trump’s approach to tariffs as “brilliant” Thursday.
Compare that with what other national figures from the South have said recently about tariffs.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis: “I’m just trying to figure out whose throat I get to choke if it’s wrong, and who I put up on a platform and thank them for the novel approach that was successful if they’re right.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: “I love President Trump. I’m his strongest supporter in the Senate. But here’s one thing to understand: A tariff is a tax, and it is a tax principally on American consumers.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul: “When you add a bunch of tariffs, you’ll lose $6 trillion in the marketplace. When you get rid of the tariffs, guess what? It comes bounding back. Tariffs are perceived by millions of people as being bad for the economy, so I hope there’s a lesson learned.”
In other words, if I beat you up then pick you up don’t hold me up! Trump played Jenga with the economy, then started a new game when it crashed. He shouldn’t be congratulated for it. If the president wants tariffs to rebuild U.S. manufacturing, he should use them smarter and aim for more stability. Period.
What President Donald Trump did this past week wasn’t shrewd. It was a reckless game he played with the global economy and yes, Americans’ stocks, bonds, 401(k)s, budgets and businesses. And what his adviser, Peter Navarro, said was simply terrible.
Spartanburg County Councilman David Britt didn’t mince any words when discussing it.
“He doesn’t have a clue,” Britt said of Navarro.
Thank you, Councilman Britt.
If only our state’s elected leaders were as brief and bold. It’s not difficult to say that time will tell how much President Trump’s risky trade policies hurt or help the state but that Peter Navarro is a nincompoop.
The state’s Republican elected officials may not want to criticize the White House, but they need to figure out how to stand up for South Carolina when anyone in the Trump administration badmouths it as Navarro just did.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.