A few weeks ago, Ontario Premier Doug Ford had enough of Donald Trump’s threats, insults, and bullying, responding with a fusillade of unvarnished criticism aimed squarely at the president.
After Trump referred to the premier as “Flunky Ford” and the “less charismatic, intelligent” version of his late brother Rob, Ford told a Toronto radio station that America’s president could “kiss my ass.” At a subsequent news conference, Ford doubled down on the rhetoric.
When asked by a CBC reporter to react to Trump’s insults, Ford said he wouldn’t respond to “a dictator like President Trump.”
“He’s the type of guy in school that would take your lunch money one day, take your toque off your head the next day, and then steal your running shoes,” Ford said. “I’m not going to take any advice from a guy that’s the king of bankruptcies.”
Ford told The Associated Press he was willing to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the U.S. as the trade war drags on. Ontario sends power to about 1.5 million people across Michigan, New York, and Minnesota.
My perception of Ford is that he has the toughness to make good on his threats. I wouldn’t blame him if he does.
The Ford name may be on its way to becoming synonymous with unadulterated grit when responding to bullies. Ford Motor Company has also drawn a line in the sand with Trump and his cabinet members, whom legions of critics uncharitably dismiss as the president’s flunkies.
One of them is Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, whose department gave reporters a letter questioning Ford Motor Co.’s patriotism and attacking the automaker’s reliance on foreign adversaries, including China, for critical manufacturing components—before Ford had even seen it.
Ford learned about Duffy’s broadside from reporters seeking comment, rather than from the Transportation secretary himself. Adding insult to injury, Duffy didn’t have his facts straight, pretty damning given that calling out “fake news” is one of Trump’s signature themes.
“DOT remains deeply alarmed by Ford’s continued reliance on licensed technology from Chinese battery manufacturer CATL at the operational Blue Oval Battery Park facility in Marshall, Michigan,” Duffy thundered in his letter. “When a company intentionally chooses to deepen operational dependencies on strategic competitors, it fails to act as the reliable partner the American public and this DOT require.
“Attempting to navigate current circumstances in ways that could enrich those very competitors is not a sustainable strategy for the United States. Ford must demonstrate a level of corporate citizenship that prioritizes the long-term resilience and technological sovereignty of the United States automotive ecosystem over short-term arrangements or questionable foreign alliances.”
To Ford Motor’s credit, the Dearborn-based automaker didn’t lie down and allow the Transportation secretary to steamroll the company. Instead, it had the backbone to publicly criticize Duffy and call out his agenda.
“Secretary Duffy’s letter is 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,” Ford said in a statement posted to the company’s website. Ford noted that while Duffy was critical of Ford’s Marshall plant, the White House hailed the investment in an August 31 news release as an example of Michigan’s “manufacturing renaissance.”
The Trump administration can’t even get its messaging straight.
There’s much to criticize about Ford’s Marshall plant, especially given that its construction required the destruction of fertile farmland and century-old trees in a rural community whose residents fiercely opposed the facility. The ecological disgrace was championed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who showered the project with $1.7 billion in grants, tax credits, infrastructure spending, and other subsidies from Michigan taxpayers.
The Center for Economic Accountability (CEA) named the massive state incentive package its “Worst Economic Development Deal of the Year” for 2023.
Ford owns the Marshall plant but is licensing technology from China’s CATL, which is what supposedly sticks in Duffy’s craw. Another vociferous critic of the plant is GM CEO Mary Barra, who in 2023 personally lobbied Congress to warn that Ford’s Marshall facility could be the harbinger of Chinese domination over U.S. auto manufacturing.
Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford told reporters last year that “we do know that others in our industry are trying to submarine (Michigan Blue Oval) to hurt us.” While Ford stopped short of naming names, four people familiar with the matter told Crain’s Detroit Business that GM was indeed behind the lobbying efforts to derail the project.
On its website, Ford provided impressive charts documenting its unrivaled U.S. manufacturing bona fides. Understandably, given that alienating Beijing carries massive commercial risk, Ford judiciously avoided citing this undeniable reality: there is arguably no U.S. automaker less patriotic than Mary Barra’s General Motors.
GM has spent nearly three decades in a joint venture with the state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). Under that pact, SAIC engineers and manufactures vehicles in China sold under GM’s Buick and Chevrolet nameplates across Mexico and Latin America. GM is already Mexico’s largest automotive producer and exporter to the U.S., and it has announced plans to begin assembling SAIC-developed vehicles in Mexico next year, allowing its Chinese joint-venture partner to sidestep Mexico’s 50-percent tariff on Chinese-built cars.
Three of GM’s marquee EVs—the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Blazer EV, and Cadillac Optiq—roll out of Mexican assembly plants. Most of GM’s entry-level gas vehicles, including the Trax and Trailblazer, are built in South Korea. Even the vehicles GM bolts together in the U.S. are heavily laden with foreign components.
In the latest Cars.com American-Made Index—which ranks vehicles based on assembly location, domestic parts content, engine and transmission sourcing, and U.S. factory workforce—Tesla swept the top two spots, Jeep claimed No. 3 and No. 4, Honda grabbed half of the top 10, and Ford Motor landed four vehicles inside the top 15.
GM placed none. Its highest-ranking entry, the GMC Canyon, eked out the No. 25 spot.
So why would Duffy, whose cabinet portfolio does not include national security, trade, or foreign policy, single out Ford while turning a blind eye to GM?
Following the money trail provides a compelling clue.
In a typical year, Ford spends between $4 million and $4.5 million on federal lobbying, while GM routinely spends $13 million to $15 million, outspending its Michigan rival by more than 3 to 1. But in the first three months of 2026, GM went into overdrive, dropping a record $11.4 million on federal lobbying while Ford spent just $696,000—a lopsided 16-to-1 blowout.
Since January 2025, when Trump returned to office, GM has hired four outside lobbying shops, including Miller Strategies, a firm run by influential Trump confidant Jeff Miller.
Phoebe Wall Howard, author of the Shifting Gears Substack newsletter, identified another potential money trail worth considering. Howard noted that Duffy’s Transportation Department partnered with GM to launch the Explore250 road-trip navigation app, timed to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
While GM denied paying cash to DOT, GM spokeswoman Lisa Suchland confirmed that GM’s own software and services team built, designed, and provides ongoing technical support and bug fixes for Duffy’s signature app.
Add to that Mary Barra hosting both Trump and Duffy together at GM’s Milford Proving Ground in July, and the picture becomes clear: GM was building direct pipelines into the Trump cabinet.
Duffy’s letter is hardly the first time a well-connected corporate interest has been followed by a swift, vociferous Trump administration attack on a rival. The New York Times reported that after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Michigan billionaire Matthew Moroun—whose family owns the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit and faces fierce competition from the Canadian-financed Gordie Howe Bridge—Lutnick promptly called President Trump.
Trump immediately launched into a tirade against Canada, threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge unless the U.S. was handed at least a half-ownership stake and a direct cut of the toll revenue.
Ford Motor has demonstrated that punching back against a bully produces results. Hours after Dearborn called out Duffy’s grandstanding, the White House rushed to de-escalate, posting this olive branch on its official Rapid Response account:
If Ontario’s Doug Ford actually cuts off power to 1.5 million residents across Michigan, New York, and Minnesota right before the November elections, my guess is that he, too, can expect some surprisingly kind words from the White House Rapid Response team.