Key Points
- President Trump touted a new $70 million factory investment by Deere & Co. in North Carolina.
- The investment was actually first announced in 2024, under the Biden administration. The factory will build excavators and create 150 new jobs.
- Deere is also building a new distribution center in Indiana, which will also create 150 jobs.
- The company confirmed that some of the plans for North Carolina had been “disclosed earlier.”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised the farm-equipment maker Deere & Co. for a new $70 million factory investment in North Carolina, but it turns out the announcement is not quite as new as it seems. The company, also known as John Deere, had actually first committed to the investment back in 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
In a speech in Iowa, Trump said, “John Deere is doing $70 million in factory in North Carolina. I think it is going to pay off very, very big.” The White House later posted on social media that the company would be building two new factories in the U.S., including the one in North Carolina.
The company did confirm on Tuesday that it is setting up a new $70 million excavator factory in Kernersville, North Carolina, and that it has also broken ground on a new distribution center in Indiana. Both of these facilities will create 150 new jobs and are expected to open within the next year.
However, when asked if the North Carolina plan was the same one that was announced in 2024, the company admitted that “some of its plans for North Carolina had been disclosed earlier by officials.”
This is not the first time the Trump administration has taken credit for business investments that were in the works before he took office. It’s a classic political move, but it’s also a reminder to always read the fine print.
