Top S.C. Democratic Senator Invites Trump to Tour BMW
By: Jessica Holdman/South Carolina Daily Gazette
COLUMBIA — The leading Democrat in the South Carolina Senate has invited President Donald Trump to tour BMW’s Upstate manufacturing facility.
Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto of Orangeburg introduced the resolution Tuesday extending “a formal invitation to the president of the United States to visit the plant and witness firsthand its impact on the Palmetto State and the nation.”
The invitation follows remarks by White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro on CNBC last week criticizing the German automaker because it imports many of the parts it uses in its X series vehicles built in Spartanburg County.
“This business model where BMW and Mercedes come in to Spartanburg, South Carolina, and have us assemble German engines and Austrian transmissions — that doesn’t work for America,” Navarro said. (Mercedes is actually located in the Lowcountry, while BMW is in Greer, roughly halfway between Spartanburg and Greenville.)
“It’s bad for our economics,” he continued. “It’s bad for our national security. We want them to come here.”
Navarro was on national television discussing the Trump administration’s 10% global tariffs and 25% tariffs on imported vehicles and proposed 25% tariffs on imported auto parts, which are scheduled to go into effect May 3.
“When I heard the criticism, it dawned on me maybe they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Hutto said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “BMW is a jewel for South Carolina. It’s not a scam. And if people in Washington don’t understand that, I invite them to come down here and take a look.”
While none of the six counties Hutto represents are in the Upstate, there are BMW suppliers in his district, he noted, demonstrating the company’s statewide reach.
“When somebody does something that affects the entire state, I think it’s important that we say something about it,” he said.
The resolution went on to cite the $14.8 billion invested by BMW and the 5 million vehicles produced in Greer since the plant opened in 1994.
The measure was sent to the Senate Labor Commerce and Industry Committee for review.
U.S. Rep. William Timmons, who represents Greenville and Spartanburg counties in Congress, also weighed in on X, formerly Twitter, last week following Navarro’s remarks.
“As the representative of SC-04, home to BMW USA and the tens of thousands of people it employs both directly and indirectly, I can assure you that BMW is good for South Carolina and America,” Timmons wrote April 7.
Gov. Henry McMaster, too, called BMW “a great company.”
“Since they arrived, others have followed,” he told reporters last week. “They have sent the word out around the world this is a great manufacturing state.”
The South Carolina Daily Gazette is a nonprofit news site providing nonpartisan reporting and thoughtful commentary.
