President Trump has blasted General Motors’ plans to lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure.

“I’m not happy with what she did,” he commented about chief executive Mary Barra, the auto maker’s chief executive. He told the Wall St Journal that he had told Barra that she should stop making cars in China, and open a new plant in Ohio instead.

“They better damn well open a new plant there very quickly,” Trump told the Journal.

GM says reduction includes 8100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. The reductions could amount to as much as 8 per cent of GM’s global workforce of 180,000 employees.

Later, speaking to a crowd in Mississippi, President Trump dismissed the impact of GM’s move.

“For years you watched as powerful forces in Washington shipped away your jobs. You saw that,” he said. “You saw that. That’s changing. You see what’s coming in. So many companies coming in to Mississippi. And everyplace else, by the way.”

Plants without products include assembly plants in Detroit; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario. Also affected are transmission factories in Warren, Michigan, as well as Baltimore.

About 6000 factory workers could lose jobs in the US and Canada, although some could transfer to truck plants. (AP)