Chicago, Michigan: Ford Motor Co will announce investments in three Michigan plants, Donald Trump said in a Twitter post, two weeks after the president urged car companies to follow his pledge for eased regulations with more hiring.
“Big announcement by Ford today,” Trump tweeted early Tuesday. “Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to US JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!”
The second largest US automaker didn’t immediately confirm Trump’s tweet. “We have nothing to announce at this time,” Kelli Felker, a Ford spokeswoman, said in an email.
In a visit to the Detroit area earlier this month, Trump asked the top executives of major automakers in the US to boost employment following his move to extend a review of fuel economy and emissions standards.
“You need to come back and give us big numbers in terms of jobs,” Trump told the chief executive officers of Ford, General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on March 15. Trump said rules imposed by the Obama administration to raise the average gas mileage of cars to more than 50 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade “would have destroyed, or further destroyed, the auto industry.”
After Trump frequently criticised Ford during his campaign, the relationship turned around when the automaker in January cancelled plans to build a $1.6 billion (Dh5.9 billion) factory in Mexico. Trump now praises Ford and chats regularly with Executive Chairman Bill Ford about trade, regulations and taxes. The automaker was among the companies that cried foul when president Barack Obama ended a review of his fuel rules near the end of his administration.
Ford Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields has made several visits to the White House to meet with the president, and investment announcements by automakers have become fodder Trump cites as evidence he’s helping the US economy. For the auto industry, it takes years to bring a car from drawing boards to showrooms, and factory investment decisions are typically made years before they are announced. Ford promised many plant upgrades in its 2015 contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers.
“The auto industry deserves credit for the investments it makes,” Michelle Krebs, an analyst with car-shopping website Autotrader.com, said by phone. “These investments were in the works long before November 8,” when Trump was elected.
