American automakers have created 'task forces' to monitor President Trump's tweeting

Donald Trump meets with auto industry executives.

(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

published 24 January 2017

Auto industry executives have their first meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, but they've already long been pondering how they'll work with the new president. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that instead of spending the end of 2016 preparing for the year ahead, the auto industry was focused on getting ready for the Trump administration:

Union bosses are being called in to consult on how to reshuffle factory work, board members are trying to figure out who has friends in President Donald Trump's new administration, and task forces have been created to monitor his Twitter account.At a dinner party during the Detroit auto show earlier this month, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Mark Fields said he reread Mr. Trump's The Art of the Deal over the holidays. He first read it in the 1980s, but wants to better understand the new occupant of the Oval Office. [Wall Street Journal]

But with Trump repeatedly dinging automakers on Twitter for considering offshoring manufacturing, auto execs have realized they're "going to have to learn to respond," Marchionne said. Since being elected, Trump has taken to calling out specific automakers on Twitter, including Ford and General Motors, and his tweeted promises of imposing hefty border taxes have sent the companies' respective stocks in a downward spiral, if only temporarily.