Ford faces Republican backlash over China business ties amid Trump administration pressure

In September 2026, Ford Motor Company became the focal point of a broader American reckoning over corporate entanglement with China, as Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials — led by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy — publicly challenged the automaker's Chinese partnerships. Ford's CEO pushed back, insisting that critics fundamentally misunderstood the company's operations, revealing a deep tension between political imperatives and corporate strategy. The confrontation is less about one company's balance sheet than about who gets to define what it means to be an American m