It may be heresy, but the South Carolina man who founded Bikers for Trump is sticking with the president in his feud with Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Chris Cox of Mount Pleasant has been a faithful Harley loyalist but thinks Donald Trump’s battle to win the global trade and tariff war will keep his biker buddies supporting Trump over their Harley allegiance.
“Harley-Davidson has been kept above water because of the blood, sweat and spit of the veterans and the blue collar,” Cox told Palmetto Politics.
Those are the same veterans and blue collars who helped put Trump in the White House, he said.
“All the bikers are behind the president on this,” Cox added, pointing to comments on his Bikers for Trump 2020 Facebook page.
Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson announced recently that production of its motorcycles sold in Europe will move from U.S. factories to facilities overseas. The move was prompted by the retaliatory tariffs the European Union is imposing on American exports.
Company officials said the EU’s levy on its motorcycles jumped from 6 percent to 31 percent, adding about $2,200 in cost per average motorcycle exported from America.
Trump tweeted he was surprised the iconic brand was first “to wave the White Flag.”
Cox, who has a busy national schedule stumping for candidates Trump supports, said one biking option for some is switching to another American motorcycle brand: Indian.
“They are the Coke and Pepsi of the motorcycle industry,” he said.
There’s a chance all five of the Charleston area’s veteran and current Republican members of Congress will be on stage together in August.
Tommy Hartnett, Arthur Ravenel Jr., Henry Brown, Tim Scott and Mark Sanford — representing 38 years of continual service — have been invited to take part in a recognition and fundraiser sponsored by the Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester GOPs.
The date is Aug. 17 at Alhambra…
