Ford’s Rare Rebuke of Trump Official Tests DC-Detroit Relations

When it comes to sparring with officials in DC, one company’s public relations department is Built Ford Tough.

Last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy published a critical letter to the carmaker’s CEO, Jim Farley, in which he cited “profound concern” that Ford is “actively intertwining its future with Chinese state-backed enterprises.” The company spent the week firing back, arguing Duffy was angling for publicity, out of his depth and even out of step with the rest of the administration.

War of the Words

Duffy’s letter plainly says the Trump administration views Ford’s dealings with Chinese companies as a national security risk and urges executives to cut ties with them. He chastised the company’s supposed “reliance on technologies of foreign adversaries.” 

Ford does license technology from Chinese battery maker CATL to make electric vehicle batteries, which Duffy flagged, but it is building those batteries in Michigan at a Ford facility that employs US workers. In fact, Ford issued a blistering response that accused Duffy of “a wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines at the expense of a company that has done more for American manufacturing than virtually any other in the nation’s history.” The carmaker noted that, just days before Duffy’s letter, the White House praised the CATL project, highlighting Ford’s $3 billion investment and the 1,700 new jobs it will produce. It’s not the only inconsistency the company highlighted:

• Ford has a joint venture with Geely to make the Chinese automaker’s vehicles for the European market at its Spain plant. Duffy claimed Farley had proposed a “framework” to American officials to bring similar joint ventures to the US, but the Ford CEO told The Wall Street Journal the secretary’s recollection is “flatly wrong.” 
• Duffy also criticized Ford for allegedly “delaying” the reshoring of manufacturing of Lincoln models including the Nautilus from China until 2030. In fact, Ford noted, it is coordinating with the administration on that timeline and, just last month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick praised its reshoring efforts, stating Ford is going to “rock us with bringing manufacturing back to America.”

Whiplash: Ford Chief Policy Officer Steve Croley told the Detroit Free Press that Duffy’s letter surprised the company and is “not in keeping with the very positive rapport we have with the White House and the rest of the administration.” To make matters even more confusing, a day after Duffy released the letter, an official White House account tweeted that Ford is “a GREAT American company” that “has done a tremendous job on increasing investments domestically and shoring production back to the U.S.” If things keep swinging this wildly, someone is going to get carsick.