Bad or Worse

The automotive publication Jalopnik published a short article yesterday (link here) about how Ford Motor Company's China division will no longer import the Chinese-made Focus Active to the United States because of the current administration's tariffs and how Donald Trump either ignorantly or deviously tried to peddle that as good news.

After provided a link about this news, Trump posted on Twitter: "This car can now be built in the U.S.A."

Flat out wrong.

The car will still be built in China. It just won't be imported to the United States. They'll sell them in other countries. That means lost American jobs because there will be no cars for salespeople to sell.

Why did Trump announce something that isn't happening? One explanation is that he's woefully ignorant of how trade works. He thinks America is China's only overseas market. He doesn't realize people in other countries buy Chinese-made cars.

So essentially, he could be leaping to a conclusion out of stupidity.

Or.

The other explanation is that Trump knows all this. He's just being deliberately dishonest and trying to turn bad news into a "win." He understand perfectly the cars are not going to be made nor sold in the US but knows his supporters won't realize this.

So which is worse? An ignorant boob as President? Or a manipulative liar?