Trump Claims Credit for Plant Staying in Kentucky . . . That Was Staying in Kentucky Anyway

The New York Times and multiple other outlets are reporting that Donald Trump’s tweets taking credit for a Ford plant staying in Kentucky were inaccurate. The plant was never leaving in the first place. New York Times:

President-elect Donald J. Trump claimed credit on Thursday night for persuading Ford to keep an automaking plant in Kentucky rather than moving it to Mexico. The only wrinkle: Ford was not actually planning to move the plant.

Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter shortly after 9 p.m. that Ford’s chairman, William Clay Ford Jr., had just told him that Ford “will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky — no Mexico.”

Minutes later, Mr. Trump wrote in a second post: “I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great State of Kentucky for their confidence in me!” Mr. Trump won 62.5 percent of the state’s popular vote in the presidential election.

Ford was planning to move a line of cars from Kentucky to Mexico, and increase production of a different line of cars. No jobs were ever going to be lost in Kentucky:

But Ford had not planned to close the Louisville factory. Instead, it had planned to expand production of another vehicle made in Louisville, the Ford Escape. And the change had not been expected to result in any job losses.

“Whatever happens in Louisville, it will not lose employment,” Jimmy Settles, a union official, told The Detroit Free Press. “They cannot make enough Escapes.”

Now, thanks to Mr. Trump, the plant will make fewer Escapes — and more MKCs.

Meanwhile, Ford is still moving forward with plans to move production of the Ford Focus to Mexico:

This week, Ford chief executive Mark Fields reiterated that it was moving forward with plans to shift production of the Ford Focus to Mexico from Michigan.

By the way, Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit reported last night: TRUMP EFFECT: Ford Calls Donald Trump – Says Plant Will Not Move to Mexico, Will Remain in Kentucky:

Bill Ford, the Chairman of Ford Moters [sic], called Donald Trump tonight and said he will be keeing [sic] the Lincoln plant in Kentucky- Not Mexico.

There is no correction to the Gateway Pundit story, even though “Ford Moters” won’t be “keeing” the plant in Kentucky due to Trump.

Prediction: Gateway Pundit will pay no price for misleading readers, while some on the right will grumble that this blog reported true facts to correct Donald Trump’s false assertions.

None of this is the biggest deal in the world. Trump, no fan of attention to detail, probably just got confused. But Presidents need to be accurate to have credibility. (No, Obama wasn’t accurate, and Obama did not have credibility. Do you want Trump to have Obama’s credibility? Then don’t bring up Obama to defend Trump.)

But hey. If you prefer cheerleading to accuracy, there’s always Gateway Pundit.

[Disclaimer]

The post Trump Claims Credit for Plant Staying in Kentucky . . . That Was Staying in Kentucky Anyway appeared first on RedState.