Politicians Are Claiming Credit for the Audi Plant and the Media Is Letting Them Get Away With It

The Dragon Slayer Is Back, and He Did Not Kill Anything

I am going to tell you about a movie I watched as a kid called Dragon Slayer. In it, some young hero actually kills the dragon. Then at the end, the king walks up after the battle is over, sticks his sword into the already-dead dragon, and declares himself the Dragon Slayer. That image has stuck with me for decades because it captures exactly what politicians do with economic news.

Every. Single. Time.

The Audi plant announcement in Georgia came with a party, influencers, press coverage, and the predictable wave of “look what tariffs did” takes. And I am sitting here watching this and thinking, does anyone actually look at who owns Audi?

Volkswagen Is a Disaster and That Is the Real Story

Volkswagen owns Audi. And Volkswagen is currently one of the worst-run major auto companies in the world. Their stock has been getting crushed. They botched their EV transition. They tried to bring back the classic VW bus as an electric vehicle that tops out around 200 miles of range and cannot move inventory. They have been asleep at the wheel on large SUVs, which happen to be the most profitable segment in the biggest auto market on earth, the United States.

Here is what has been true for a long time:

• BMW has been building SUVs in South Carolina for years
• Mercedes and Hyundai figured out American manufacturing economics long ago
• German energy costs are through the roof thanks to their green energy mandates
• German labor costs exceed American labor costs by a significant margin
• The United States is where the big SUV money is, full stop

Volkswagen did not build this plant because of a tariff announcement at a press conference. They built it because they were getting left behind by every competitor who already understood that building near your biggest market makes financial sense. This was a business survival decision dressed up as a patriotic investment story.

The Media Is Not Going to Ask These Questions, So I Will

When you see a flashy economic announcement with politicians front and center, here is the checklist nobody in the mainstream press seems to use:

• Was this investment already being planned before the political event?
• What are the actual cost drivers pushing this company toward American manufacturing?
• Is the company making this announcement in a position of strength or desperation?
• Who paid for the influencers and the media push around this announcement?

Volkswagen is not arriving in Georgia from a position of strength. They are arriving because they have no other competitive option. The market forced their hand. That is a very different story than the one being sold to you.

Credit Where It Is Actually Due

I am not here to be purely partisan about this. Deregulation is real and it matters. Making it easier to do business in the United States is genuinely good policy and the current administration deserves credit for moving in that direction. That is a legitimate win.

But there is a difference between policies that create a better environment for business and taking personal credit for a specific investment decision that was driven by a struggling company’s competitive desperation and decades of obvious market logic. One is governing. The other is just sticking your sword into a dragon someone else killed.