Trump on Twitter: Ford won’t move Lincoln assembly to Mexico

On Thursday night, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that he saved a Ford plant from moving to Mexico – apparently fulfilling one of his many campaign promises before even taking office. “I owed it to the great State of Kentucky for their confidence in me!” the tweet read.

Ford has repeatedly denied that it was planning to close any USA plants that would result in workers losing their jobs. Ford is moving is production of small cars to Mexico, but that will create room to manufacture other vehicles.

Ford had initially planned to move the output of the Lincoln model to another plant to boost production of the Escape, which is built at the same factory. Because Escape production would increase, no Louisville jobs would be lost.

Ford stated last month it would stop production of the Escape and MKC at its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky for two weeks because of low need.

During the primaries, Trump called Ford’s plans to invest $1.6 billion to build a new factory in Mexico “an absolute disgrace” and promised to impose tariffs on USA companies that move to Mexico.

Here we are in Trump’s America, where the President-elect sends out self-congratulatory tweets about business deals he never helped with because they never really happened. In reality, the company had only been planning to shift production under an agreement that was made four years previous. The automaker, however, says it never planned to relocate the entire plant.

And you’re right, the number of jobs that that plant employs before this announcement, and after this announcement are unchanged. Ford has countered Trump’s criticism, saying the company, founded by his great-grandfather, makes more cars and trucks in the United States than any other automaker.

The Louisville Courier-Journal published Ford’s statement on the matter where it diplomatically and carefully said that it “continue [d] to engage with President-elect Trump’s team” and “shared our commitment to continue to investing in the United States and creating American jobs”. Earlier this year, Ford said it will invest a further $1.6 billion in Mexico for small-car production to start in 2018.

And there’s the Louisville Assembly Plant, which mostly produces Ford Escapes, but also now builds the Lincoln MKC, a compact utility vehicle.

Baker did confirm that Bill Ford spoke with President-elect Trump yesterday.

Yet as The Washington Post reported, Ford never meant to shut down the plant. Those plans appear to be unaffected by Trump’s phone calls with the company’s chairman.

Supporters of Mr Trump voiced their delight on social media, applauding him for saving United States jobs and – in the President-elect’s own parlance – “winning”.