Trump Extorts Foreign Companies he Begged to Invest in the US

Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence.... "Making unfounded threats in order to obtain an unfair business advantage is a form of extortion. Extortion is sometimes called the "protection racket" because the racketeers often phrase their demands as payment for "protection" from threats from unspecified other parties; though often, and almost always, such "protection" is simply abstinence of harm from the same party, and such is implied in the "protection" offer.

By rounding up some 500 Korean workers at a Hyundai plant near Savanah, in the backward state of Georgia, and accusing them of being "illegal aliens" when they were brought in by their company to run the US-based plant, Donald Trump is extorting the company.

The problem is not that these South Koreans, who hail from the thriving country of South Korea, are coming illegally into the US. They all were sponsored by their mother company in South Korea and by the subsidiary in the US. They were all vetted and given legal papers to live and work in the US.

The real issue is that Trump want Hyundai to hire American workers, instead of importing its own workers. So he comes up with excuses and pretexts to kick vaulable foreigners out of the country.

Problem is that the Americans Trump wants Hyundai to hire are incompetent and do not have the required skills, especially in the inbred slavery state of Georgia. It will take time to train the braindead Georgians and get them working at the required speed of business. Americans are very poor when it comes to foreign languages, so how are these MAGA imbeciles from Georgia going to communicate with Koreans?

American companies that invest overseas do the same thing: They bring their own people from the states because they have the experience and the skills. But double standards are Trump's motto.

Then there is the humiliating "format" of rounding up hundreds of visiting Koreans like they were criminals. Instead of discussing the matter with the company management and finding a compromise, Trump jumps on the occasion to pretend to want jobs for Americans while at the same time jailing and humiliating those workers. It's his racist cruelty behind all this. He can then brag to his fat MAGA "influencers' that he is fighting foreigners and fighting for Americans, and the numskull idiots of MAGA cheer him for his bullying and his racism.

How do German car manufacturers (BMW, Mercedes for example) with plants in the US handle the situtation? Do they bring in German nationals for a period of time before gradually handing the process to US workers? Or is it that the Germans - white with a shining history of white supremacist hatred - are more in line with his demented brain?

How about Honda, Nissan, Mazda and other Japanese makers in the US? Is Trump going to go after them like stray dogs and send his Getsapo-ICE to arrest and round up people?

Finally, given this inimical atmosphere that a demented racist old geezer is creating, these companies might fold, leave the backward southern states where they operate, go to Canada or Mexico, leaving the idiot holding the bag of losing foreign investments. Sure, he can threaten them with tariffs, but at some point the kind of respect that Donald Dump is demanding is too high a price to pay.

Trump's single idea is MONEY. He has no understanding of international relations and the soft power of the US. He's like a lowly grocery store owner who chases away customers for stupid reasons, then finds himself under.
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Trump Demands ‘Respect’ After Massive Immigration Raid
Janna Brancolini
Mon, September 8, 2025


Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

President Donald Trump issued a warning to the very same foreign companies he is pushing to invest in the United States, telling them to “respect” immigration laws and to hire American workers.

Days after immigration officials shocked South Korea, a close ally of the U.S., by arresting hundreds of people at a Hyundai battery factory under construction near Savannah, Georgia, Trump attempted to defend the raid in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

“Following the Immigration Enforcement Operation on the Hyundai Battery Plant in Georgia, I am hereby calling on all Foreign Companies investing in the United States to please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws,” he wrote.

“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so. What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers,” Trump added.


U.S. immigration officials raided a Hyundai plant just 10 days after President Donald Trump met with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and pledged closer economic cooperation between the two countries. / Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Officials announced last week that they had arrested about 450 “unlawful aliens” at the site, though Korean media sources said the number of people detained could be as high as 560.

About 300 of the people detained were South Korean nationals, including employees of a different South Korean company who were visiting the plant during a business trip.

The president’s signature economic policy has involved imposing devastating tariffs on imported goods and then dangling the possibility of reducing the tariffs if foreign companies invest in the U.S.

In July, South Korea agreed to invest $350 billion in the U.S. in exchange for Trump lowering the duty on Korean products from 25 percent to 15 percent. The tariffs are paid by American companies, with the costs typically passed on to consumers.

The Hyundai plant arrests came just 10 days after South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, met Trump in Washington, D.C., where they both vowed to strengthen business ties between the two countries.

Following the Hyundai plant raid, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blasted the arrests, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The economic activities of our companies investing in the United States and the interests of our citizens must not be unduly violated during the course of U.S. law enforcement,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

The South Korean government has negotiated the release of its nationals and is chartering a plane to repatriate them, Reuters reported Monday.

The battery plant that was raided will be jointly operated by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, a South Korean battery manufacturer, as part of a $12.6 billion investment in Georgia that also includes a nearby auto factory. In a statement, Hyundai told the Journal it didn’t directly employ anyone who was detained.

The raid was the largest worksite raid in the Department of Homeland Security’s history, and it highlighted that foreign companies are struggling to find qualified American workers, according to Reuters.

People in the Korean capital of Seoul were outraged by the operation’s optics, as footage of the raid showed armored vehicles and shackled workers.

Speaking to reporters over the weekend, Trump tried to downplay the impact the raid could have on bilateral relations with a key economic ally.

His Truth Social post also tried to strike a more conciliatory note after warning foreign companies to hire Americans.

“Together, we will all work hard to make our Nation not only productive, but closer in unity than ever before,” he wrote. “Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”