Bellin shrugs off the president’s spat with Harley. Earlier this summer, Harley announced it would expand overseas production in order to evade E.U. tariffs levied as retaliation against Trump’s tariffs on steel. In a mid-August Twitter post, the president encouraged a boycott of the company. “Other countries do it to us,” Bellin says, referring to tariffs. “And we should protect ourselves. Without being racist or anything, but you see all the Asian people here? Look what kind of car they’re driving. They’re driving all Toyotas and Hondas and stuff. They protect their own country, even though they’re here. And that’s just the way it should be. Germans should be buying a German car, I think. Americans should be buying American.”
I hear this kind of thing repeatedly over several days: support for the president and indifference about both Harley’s response to the tariffs and the president’s attacks on Harley—the company whose bikes, of course, everyone is riding and celebrating. Some of the bikers I speak with are unaware of any discord at all.
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