Trump touted a Ford factory staying in the US as an election win - but it was never leaving

AP

Donald Trump.

President-elect Donald Trump said on Twitter Thursday night that he convinced Ford executives to keep a production plant from moving to Mexico.

"Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico," Trump said 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!"

But there's one problem: Ford never planned to move its Louisville, Kentucky plant to Mexico.

Ford originally had plans to shift production of its Lincoln MKC vehicle from its Louisville plant to Mexico, according to The Courier-Journal, but the shift was not expected to affect employment levels at the plant.

Ford has now opted to keep building the line at the Louisville facility.

The company never announced it would be shutting down the plant and moving it across the border as Trump asserted.

"We are encouraged that President-elect Donald 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," Ford said in a statement.

Ford announced on Tuesday that it would move production of its Ford Focus line of vehicles from Michigan to Mexico in order to make room at the factory for two new products. There will be no job loss due to the move however, CEO Mark Fields told Reuters.

During his campaign Trump railed against American companies that he said outsourced jobs overseas and left some Americans unemployed.

The president-elect threatened to put a 45% tariff on goods from China to in an effort to punish companies that build products overseas.