Trump Takes Credit For Ford Moving Plants Out Of Mexico—Except It Isn’t

Donald Trump visits Scotland. Donald Trump speaks to the media at his Trump Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire, which is hosting the Ricoh Women's British Open. Picture date: Thursday July 30, 2015. The businessman sa... Donald Trump visits Scotland. Donald Trump speaks to the media at his Trump Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire, which is hosting the Ricoh Women's British Open. Picture date: Thursday July 30, 2015. The businessman said he expects to win the US presidential race after he flew into Scotland. See PA story POLITICS Trump. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire URN:23692230 MORE LESS
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Real estate mogul Donald Trump took a victory lap Sunday on Twitter, claiming that his fiery stump speeches convinced Ford Motor Company to move one of its plants from Mexico to the U.S.

But Ford burst that bubble in a statement Monday.

“Ford has not spoken with Mr. Trump, nor have we made any changes to our plans,” the company said, as quoted by Cleveland.com. “We decided to move the F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks to Ohio Assembly in 2011, long before any candidates announced their intention to run for U.S. president.”

Like many of Trump’s recent stumbles, this one originated with a retweet. The billionaire appeared to learn from Twitter user @ObfuscateClear that he successfully influenced the automaker:

@ObfuscateClear tweeted a link to a blog post on a website, prntly.com, that describes itself as “a full service print company” that specializes in “products for politicians and business people.”

The blog post, titled “Trump successfully pressures Ford to move Mexican plant to Ohio,” in turn linked to a CNN Money article published in August. CNN Money reported that an Avon Lake, Ohio plant had begun manufacturing Ford F-650 and F-750 pick up trucks while noting that the company also planned to commit $2.5 billion to transmission plants in Mexico. The article mentioned that Trump has criticized U.S. manufacturers, including Ford, who shift work to Mexico but did not credit Trump with influencing Ford’s operations in Ohio.

Presidential rival and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), whom Cleveland.com credited with getting Ford the tax incentives that made it possible to invest in the Avon Lake plant, reacted to Trump’s boast on Twitter:

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