Trump Says He Kept Ford Plant in Kentucky

Company hadn't planned to move whole plant to Mexico
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 18, 2016 12:32 AM CST
Trump Says He Kept Ford Plant in Kentucky
Workers at a Ford plant in Louisville, Ky.   (Sam VarnHagen/Ford Motor Co. via AP)

President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter Thursday night to announce that Ford Motor Co. won't be moving Lincoln production from Kentucky to Mexico. Trump tweeted that Bill Ford, the company's executive chairman, telephoned him with the news that a Lincoln plant would stay in Louisville. In another tweet, Trump claimed credit for the decision. "I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky," he said. Trump was apparently exaggerating: Ford doesn't have a plant that exclusively builds Lincolns, but it had planned to move production of the Lincoln MKC small SUV out of the Louisville Assembly Plant so it could make more Ford Escapes there, the AP reports.

A company spokeswoman confirmed that Ford was considering MKC production at a factory in Cuautitlan, Mexico, in a move negotiated with the UAW union last year. Company spokeswoman Christin Baker said she didn't know when the decision was made to keep the MKC in Louisville or if Trump had any impact on it. It's possible the decision was made before the election, because Escape sales have been falling since July, so additional production capacity in Louisville may not be needed. Still, "we are encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve US competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States," Baker said. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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