"Donald Trump taking credit for Ford's latest investment in Michigan is like a kid telling his friends he made dinner when his dad picked up a Hot-N-Ready from Little Caesars," Brandon Dillon, chair of the party, said.
Michigan Democrats went full-on Michigander in its takedown of President Donald Trump's taking credit for Ford's $1.9 billion 2017 investments in the Great Lakes State.
"Donald Trump taking credit for Ford's latest investment in Michigan is like a kid telling his friends he made dinner when his dad picked up a Hot-N-Ready from Little Caesars," Brandon Dillon, chair of the party, said in a news release. "These investments are the result of collective bargaining between UAW and Ford in 2015, made possible by President Barack Obama's faith in America's auto workers."
Big announcement by Ford today. Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2017
During an interview with NBC News Tuesday, March 28, Joe Hinrichs, the Dearborn-based automaker's president of the Americas, said Ford's announcement was "consistent with what we announced previously."
The "consistent" announcement the Ford executive is referring to is an $850 million plant investment approved with UAW in 2015.
"We're doing it because we invest in our communities here, we're proud to be a part of the state of Michigan and the U.S.," Hinrichs said in the interview. "Well, we reached out to the White House for the first time a little before 8 a.m. this morning to let them know what we were planning to announce today.
"So, we didn't have conversations with them about any of this prior to that."
Tuesday's announced investments include $850 million to the Michigan Assembly Plant, $150 million to support 130 jobs at its Romeo Engine facility, and $200 million to add an advanced data center to support the automaker's future with mobility.
Work on the Michigan Assembly Plant will start in May, as Ford said it will take about a month to remove and reinstall necessary tooling to build the new Ranger and Bronco models due out in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
The confirmation of these announcements comes on the heels of Ford's January investment of $700 million into the Flat Rock Assembly plant. Combining those investments is how we get to the $1.9 billion figure for the company's new investments in Michigan in 2017.
"Donald Trump is the most anti-worker occupant of the Oval Office we've ever seen, and the American people are no longer buying his con game," Dillon added in the release. "The fact that someone who's supposed to be the president of the United States has no accomplishments of his own, and feels the need to take credit for someone else's, is a joke."