On Wednesday, Donald Trump claimed that "countries want to kill me" because of his vague plan to bring furniture manufacturers back to the US.
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Sharks, windmills, fictitious cannibals… Donald Trump talks about a lot of insane stuff. However, this campaign season, his performances have gotten a bit stale, which is why it is always exciting when he adds some new material to his set.
And the former president certainly delivered during remarks in North Carolina on Wednesday, when he claimed that foreign countries are trying to kill him because he is bringing furniture manufacturers back to the United States (after they had presumably been exiled since 2021).
“All your furniture-makers are going to come back and come back bigger and stronger and better than ever before. They’re mostly gone. They’re all coming back,” Trump said. “This is why people in countries want to kill me.”
To put this statement in context, let’s first look at the furniture industry in the US.
When Trump left office, the industry employed 185,000 people. After some ups and downs, including those resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, that number is now up by a few thousands (although there has been a slight decline from 2022 to 2023).
In addition, even before that pandemic, employment in the industry was down under Trump from the 200,000 employees when he took office.
Therefore, he clearly cannot be talking about some massive exodus of US jobs to countries that now want to kill him.
But what about international companies?
There is one major manufacturer located abroad, and it is the best-known brand of them all: IKEA.
The Swedish multinational, whose retail sales last year exceeded $50 billion, is known for inexpensive furniture with exotic names that buyers have to put together on their own.
Seeing how it is the largest international furniture maker, it stands to reason that Trump may be referring to IKEA, in which case he is insinuating that Sweden is out to get him for some reason.
There are just a few minor flaws in his theory.
First of all, Sweden is a member of NATO, and while Trump is very unpopular in Western democracies, the Scandinavian nation has no reason to harm him.
And then there is IKEA itself.
Contrary to Trump’s claim, the furniture manufacturer has expanded its business in the US since Biden took office.
Last year, IKEA announced a $2.2 billion investment in the US — its largest ever in this market.
“The US is one of our most important markets, and we see endless opportunities to grow there and get closer to the many Americans with affordable products and services,” said Tolga Öncü, the head of IKEA Retail.
As part of this investment, the company wants to add eight new stores in the US as well as nine “Plan & Order” points. Altogether, IKEA estimates that it will create 2,000 jobs.
This expansion comes on top of previous efforts to make the brand more accessible to US consumers.
What does this all mean? Once again, nothing Trump says makes any kind of sense, and it is not grounded in reality.
Therefore, we rate his claim that unspecified people in unspecified countries want to kill him because he is bringing furniture manufacturing jobs back to the US as “mörønic.”
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often funny analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
