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!
Mr. Trump tweeted this morning suggesting that policy changes had prevented a Kentucky Ford plant from moving to Mexico. Not much information was provided but Twitter does only allow 140 characters. Mr. Trump had specifically used Ford Motors as an example during the campaign claiming that if Ford decided to outsource manufacturing he would politely contact Ford and explain that he would levy a 35% fee should Ford try to bring the autos back into the U.S. I am guessing you remember this claim and if you also read today’s tweet put two and two together.
It might be assumed that this quiet diplomacy has worked. Of course, this is not what actually happened. The Kentucky Ford plant was manufacturing two types of vehicles. Responsibility for one of these vehicles will now be shifted to Mexico. However, the plant will stay open, no one will be fired and the plant will increase production of the second vehicle. This was intended before the gentle persuasion (threats) of the campaign.
I can’t say that purposeful deception was involved. One would have to parse the tweet carefully and I suppose the “that is not what I meant” always works as an explanation for brief statements. It is possible Mr. Trump was impulsive in generating the tweet and did so making assumptions about what had happened. Impulse control has been an issue. It is likely those buying into the Trump campaign rhetoric did not search for additional information and came away satisfied that their faith had been justified.
I have long been a supporter of the potential of social media for giving all citizens a voice. I was mostly focused on production and not consumption. Clearly, there are some serious problems in the implementation of greater participation. Responsibility for careful and thorough research must be accepted. Critical thinking must be applied. It is now obvious that we even need to figure out how to address purposeful falsehoods offered and defended by the protection of free speech. There are some very practical issues to address.