Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:33 pm
Donald Trump tried to take credit for keeping a Kentucky Ford plant in the US that was never going to leave. A union contract was the real reason why the plant was always going to stay in the United States.
President-elect Trump tried to take credit for keeping the Ford plant in Kentucky on Thursday night:
Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky – no Mexico
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016
Ford’s CEO said that the plant was never moving to Mexico, but that production was shifting to make room for new products that will be produced at plants in Michigan and Kentucky. Reuters reported that even if Ford wanted to move the plant to Mexico, they couldn’t, due to a union contract, “But Ford has repeatedly said it has no plans to close any U.S. plants and likely could not do so under the terms of the current United Auto Workers contract that expires in 2019.”
Donald Trump took credit for something that was never going to happen because the workers in that Ford plant are protected by a union.
It wasn’t Donald Trump who saved those jobs. It was collective bargaining.
Without a union, Ford would have been free to move the plants anywhere.
President-elect Trump is anti-union, but it is unions who are capable of saving manufacturing jobs from going overseas.
Trump didn’t do anything. He “prevented” a plant from moving that was never going to move due to collective bargaining rights that he opposes.
The real hero is the union, not a president-elect who is trying to take credit for something that he had nothing to do with.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association