Facts appear to be falling victim to politics, Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Mark Fields said Tuesday.
Ford President and CEO Mark Fields DETROIT, MI - Facts appear to be falling victim to politics, Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Mark Fields said Tuesday.
He was responding to a question from the media about comments U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has made in campaign speeches and on Twitter about the Dearborn automaker feeling pressure from him and altering production plans.
Word is that Ford Motor, because of my constant badgering at packed events, is going to cancel their deal to go to Mexico and stay in U.S.
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2015"We have not talked to Donald Trump and we have not made any changes to our manufacturing plans," Fields said in a conference call to discuss third quarter results.
On Sunday, Donald Trump tweeted out an error-riddled article from a website called Prntly that says Ford is abandoning plans for expansion in Mexico and moving production to Youngstown, Ohio. The company does not have any facilities in Youngstown.
The company has recently moved F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks from Mexico to its Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, but that was the result of contract negotiations the Dearborn automaker had made with the UAW four years ago.
Fields pointed out that the decision was made not only before the current election cycle, but before the previous one, too.
Meanwhile, the company has no plans to alter a planned, $2.5 billion expansion for engine and transmission operations in Mexico.
"Facts are stubborn things," Fields said. "At Ford we're proud of the facts and unfortunately we suspect the facts are getting lost in the politics." He added that the company has invested $10 billion in U.S. facilities since 2011, has 80 percent of its investments there, and 90 percent of its engineering is stateside.
At the same time, Fields said, "We're a multinational company and we invest in all the markets we do business in."
"We know facts don't cease to exist because they're ignored," Fields added. "But those are the facts at Ford"
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign could not be reached Tuesday morning.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com, follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook.