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Wisconsin lawmaker's jobs claim falls short by one word

Posted at 7:49 PM, Feb 28, 2020
and last updated 2020-02-28 20:58:07-05

One of President Trump's campaign promises was to get a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

PolitiFact Wisconsin looks at a claim about the trade deals impact on Wisconsin's economy.

President Trump has made multiple trips to Wisconsin to promote the U.S. trade agreement with Mexico and Canada known as USMCA.

He signed the agreement in January.

Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman tweeted about the impact of the new agreement on Wisconsin's economy.

"His claim was that more than 44,000 jobs in Wisconsin depend on trade with our neighbors Canada and Mexico and that's what we dug into," said Greg Borowski with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

PolitiFact Wisconsin says Grothman really underestimated the job numbers for Wisconsin. The number is really 231,000 jobs.

What happened here was he mixed up the definitions, there are 44,000 manufacturing jobs that are tied into Canada and Mexico trade," said Borowski, "but there are many more jobs beyond that, that are trade-dependent."

PolitiFact Wisconsin rates Congressman Grothman's claim -- HALF TRUE.

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