Stora tråden om Donald Trump [mod]

Trump reportedly favors Mnuchin for the position, and in naming him would be following the recommendation of his transition team. Yet amid widespread appointment speculation and rumors that his transition team is hitting internal roadblocks,
Mnuchin's name has been floated repeatedly over the course of the past week as a likely successor to Lew, though JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Ford Motor Co Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr told him the automaker would not move a Kentucky plant to Mexico, but the firm said it informed him the decision was to keep one vehicle in U.S. production.

On Thursday, Trump posted on Twitter: "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!"

"He will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico," the President-elect tweeted.

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.

This is not the first time Trump's comments about Ford production have been called into question. Last year, he took credit for Ford moving work from Mexico to Ohio, while the automaker had already made the decision in 2011 - long before Trump announced a run for president.

Spokeswoman Christin Baker said Ford "confirmed with the President-elect that our small Lincoln utility vehicle made at the Louisville Assembly plant will stay in Kentucky".

"We are encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States," she added, in a statement.

“We’re going forward with our plan to move production of the Ford Focus to Mexico, and importantly that’s to make room for two very important products we’ll be putting back into Michigan plants,” Fields said in an interview on the sidelines of the Los Angeles Auto Show. “There will be no job impact whatsoever with this move.”

Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said last month he met with Trump. Ford has countered Trump’s criticism, saying the company, founded by his great-grandfather, makes more cars and trucks in the United States than any other automaker.
Fields said with U.S. gasoline prices so low, “it’s very difficult for us to be able to make money on a vehicle produced in the U.S.” in the small car segment. If Ford decided to build the Focus small car line in the United States, and had to raise the price, “we wouldn’t sell the vehicle.”

The group that represents Ford and other major automakers in the U.S. has asked the Trump transition team to review and consider easing the Obama administration’s fuel economy standards, which call for automakers to more than double the fuel efficiency of their fleets to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Fuel economy and trade “are two separate issues,” Fields said.

Ford also is moving ahead with plans to use factory capacity in other markets to fill gaps in its U.S. lineup. Company executives used the auto show to promote a small sport utility vehicle called the EcoSport that the company plans to ship from India.