After President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, some social media users linked planned cuts by Japanese automaker Nissan to Trump’s tariff threats on imported vehicles.

At a Nov. 4 rally in North Carolina, Trump threatened to impose tariffs of 25% to 100% on Mexican imports if they do not stop “the onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country.” Two days after Trump’s victory, Nissan — which, like other major automakers, makes some of its vehicles in Mexico — announced plans to cut jobs and scale back global production.

“Nissan just announced 9,000 layoffs in Tennessee to avoid severe losses from expected tariffs. Experts expect more,” on November 13. Post topics said.

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On November 7, Nissan announced 9,000 job cuts, but they are not due to potential tariffs.

“Last week’s announcement of potential global job cuts had nothing to do with any proposed action by the incoming administration,” Kyle Bazemore, Nissan’s U.S. director of corporate communications, said in an e- email for PolitiFact.

(Screenshot from Threads)

The company announced the layoffs when reporting its first-half financial results for fiscal year 2024. A press release it says it will cut costs by $2.6 billion, “Nissan will reduce global production capacity by 20 percent and reduce the global workforce by 9,000.”

The move comes after Nissan posted a decline in net income of ¥79.1 billion, or about $509 million. The company called it a “serious situation” and said CEO Makoto Uchida would take a 50 percent pay cut, in addition to job and production cuts.

Nissan has struggled in part because it doesn’t have an offering in the growing U.S. gasoline-electric hybrid market, Uchida said.

The press release did not mention possible tariffs as a factor, nor did company executives attribute them to the tariffs in a Nov. 7. press conference.

Uchida was responding to a question about the impact of possible tariffs imposed by Trump. “Not only us, but many car manufacturers use Mexican production, so we would like to do a lot of lobbying efforts,” he said. He said the company exported 300,000 models from Mexico to the U.S. this fiscal year and that the company would “carefully monitor” what happens with tariffs.

Nikkei, a Japanese financial news outlet, reported that Japanese automakers are preparing to spend more on lobbying in the US with Trump in charge. Nissan, Honda and Toyota spent a combined 25 percent more on lobbying in Trump’s first term compared to former President Barack Obama’s last term.

Bazemore also did not say whether the layoffs would affect workers in Tennessee, where Nissan of North America is based. OFFICE. Nissan has two manufacturing sites in the state. A plant in Smyrna makes the Nissan Maxima, Leaf, Pathfinder, Rogue, Murano and the Infiniti QX60, Nissan website said. Another plant in Decherd produce engine parts.

Bazemore said the U.S. is a priority market for Nissan and “we expect sales growth from all-new models, including the Nissan Kicks, Murano, Armada and Infiniti QX80.”

While the Nissan Murano is made in Tennessee, the Kicks subcompact SUV is made in Mexico, and the Armada and QX80 they are made in Japan.

Nissan also makes the Sentra and Versa in Mexico, where product over 615,000 light vehicles in 2023. It exported about 367,000 of them that year.

Our decision

A Threads post claimed that Nissan is planning 9,000 layoffs in Tennessee due to Trump’s proposed tariffs.

A company spokesman said the layoffs and production cuts announced two days after the U.S. election were unrelated to a possible Trump policy. The company is cutting costs after a severe drop in sales. It’s unclear where the job cuts would be made, but the company described them as global and not specific to Tennessee.

We rate the claim false.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact check.