Donald Trump keeps making a highly questionable claim about Ford and Mexico
On Tuesday morning, Trump held his ground when challenged on the topic.
"They are bringing jobs back now. And I think one of the reasons they are bringing the jobs back is because I've been hitting Ford very hard in a lot of speeches," Trump said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Trump frequently bashed the company and others for opening new plants in Mexico instead of the US. A few days ago, apparently citing a blog post that gave him credit for pressuring Ford to open up new operations in Ohio, Trump started claiming credit for the company reversing itself. The post cited an August CNN report that did not mention Trump.
"I should get credit for that," Trump said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "Ford now is going to build a big, massive plant in the United States. And every single person - even my harshest critics - gave me credit for that."
However, Trump's critics are not, in fact, giving him credit for Ford's factory shift, a move they say was hashed out in 2011. Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), a Trump rival in the presidential race, blasted out a statement to supporters declaring that Trump was completely wrong on the facts.
"Friend, yesterday, Donald Trump tried to take credit for Ford bringing back jobs from Mexico to the United States. The truth is, this was done in Ohio FOUR YEARS AGO! Enough is enough. Our country needs real leadership and not empty, false rhetoric," wrote John Weaver, Kasich's chief strategist.
On Monday, The Cincinnati Enquirer's Chrissie Thompson, who said she covered the auto industry in Detroit in 2011, published a point-by-point takedown of Trump's claims about Ford.
Here's a portion of Thompson's rebuttal:
Ford did move some production from Mexico to Ohio. This summer, it started building Ford F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks in Northeast Ohio. The UAW and Ford negotiated the move of the truck production to Ohio way back in 2011, as part of their last round of contract talks, so the workers in Avon Lake would have vehicles to build after Ford discontinued its E-Series van last year.
In other words, this had absolutely nothing to do with Trump.
As Ford spokeswoman Kristina Adamski confirms: "Ford has not spoken with Mr. Trump, nor have we made any changes to our plans. We decided to move the F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks to Ohio Assembly in 2011, long before any candidates announced their intention to run for U.S. president."
Other outlets concurred with this assessment. "Trump gets it wrong on Ford plants in Mexico," Politico's Nick Gass reported.? "Trump's Bogus Boast on Ford," FactCheck.org's Robert Farley wrote. "Why Donald Trump can't claim credit for Ford move," Fortune's Michal Addady reported. "Despite what Donald Trump tweeted, Ford is still building a massive plant in Mexico," The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson declared.
And so on.