Fake News? Gov Thanks Trump For McAllen Company Growth, But It's Been Planned For Two Years

AUSTIN, TX — Gov. Greg Abbott flew out to the White House on Friday to help Donald Trump tout a corporate expansion the president is taking credit for having sparked as part of his "America First" agenda, but the plans actually have been in the works for about two years now — pre-dating Trump's political rise.

Charter Communications Inc. announced plans to build a call center in McAllen, Texas, a border city, that will employ 600 people. The call center along the Mexican border town will be staffed by bilingual workers catering to a Spanish-language clientele, although that bit of detail wasn't mentioned at the press conference re-announcing the expansion.

As multiple media outlets have pointed out, Charter Communications Inc. disclosed plans as early as June 2015 to to hire an additional 20,000 workers as part of a $25 billion investment in U.S. investment that included that includes the closure of the company's foreign call centers. The McAllen expansion is part of that previously announced growth spurt, multiple media outlets have reported.

Yet, somehow, Trump and Abbott have posited the corporate moves as having been sparked by the current administration. "We're embracing a new economic model, the American model," Trump told reporters in a splashy announcement touting the news as a current development, inferring credit for the development. "We're going to massively eliminate job-killing regulations. That has started already, big league."

Related story: Texas Governor To Meet With President Trump At White House

Abbott was more than willing to extend the idea the corporation expansions was largely Trump's doing despite the incongruous chronology: "First, I’m proud of you,” Abbott told Trump, as quoted by the Austin American-Statesman. “We have a president who is living up to his campaign promises, and that is to create more jobs.”

There's just one minor detail undercutting the sentiment: Stamford, Conn.-based Charter Communicationshad already announced the expansion plans during a conference call with financial analysts last August, Reuters noted. What's more, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge at the time noted that expansion "...has already started, as we are building Charter's first Spanish-language call center in McAllen, Texas, with approximately 600 seats," Reuters reported, citing a transcript the news agency kept on file from the previous announcement.

What's more, Reuters noted in its report, the McAllen expansion has less to do with job creation than it does about adhering to conditions placed on the company as it merged with Time Warner. Charter Communications officials agreed to make substantive broadband investment in May 2016 under a deal with the Federal Communications Commission as a condition for merger approval, Reuters reported.

Abbott advanced the revisionist history in a separate press release.

“I was proud to join in today’s announcement, and I thank the President and Charter Communications for their commitment to bring jobs back to America, creating hundreds of jobs for hardworking Texans in the process,” Abbott said. “The Rio Grande Valley has always been a vital part of the Texas economy, and this new facility is a testament to the high-quality workforce in McAllen. As governor, I will continue to work with the Trump administration and all partners to promote policies that create jobs and spur a new chapter in American economic growth.”

This isn't the first time Trump has taken credit for a corporate expansion that predates his ascension to the White House. In another call center example, Trump announced in December that telecommunications group Sprint Corp. and U.S. satellite company OneWeb would result in the creation of 8,000 domestic jobs, positing that development as having been fostered by his occupancy of the White House.

But Sprint Chief Executive Marcelo Claure later said the company "had plans to do this for a while," Reuters reported.

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