DETROIT — Ford Motor on Thursday announced a $1 billion investment to build a new paint shop at its crucial Kentucky Truck Plant.

The facility, which Ford has called its most important and profitable plant globally, produces the automaker's large F-250 to F-550 Super Duty trucks as well as the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.

The announcement comes two days after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy expressed "profound concern" about the automaker's U.S. "manufacturing integrity" and ties to Chinese companies that the Trump administration believed could be detrimental to the Detroit carmaker and U.S. automotive industry.

Ford, which regularly touts its position as the top-producing automaker in the U.S., called the comments a "wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines."

Paint shops are a critical and costly part of a vehicle assembly plant. The new facility for Ford is expected to replace the plant's "existing paint shop and further [modernize] one of Ford's most important manufacturing operations," the company said in a press release Thursday.

The Detroit automaker said it would break ground on the facility later this year. A Ford spokesperson declined to disclose when the company expects to complete the new paint shop.

Ford noted the investment is the latest following roughly $4 billion in announcements for its Kentucky facilities in recent years.

"These investments demonstrate our confidence in Kentucky's workforce, our commitment to American manufacturing, and our belief that the future of mobility and energy will be built right here in the United States," Ford CEO Jim Farley said in the release.

Duffy's criticism was addressed to Farley in a letter released by the Trump administration Tuesday. Following a lengthy response from Ford, the White House's Rapid Response account on X released a positive statement Wednesday, calling Ford "a GREAT American company."