US DEMOCRATIC Senator Bernie Sanders urged a change of course on Thursday in response to working-class voters’ rejection of his neoliberal-led party.

Addressing a rally outside the Capitol building in Washington in front of a banner reading: “Heal America,” Mr Sanders said that “the failure of the Democratic Party that must be rectified” in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.

Mr Trump had recognised that “there are millions of people today — working-class people, middle-class people, low-income people — who are living in despair,” falling prey to alcoholism, drug addiction and suicide.

“Facts are facts,” said the Senate Democrats’ newly appointed chair of outreach.

“When you lose the White House to the least popular candidate in history of America, when you lose the Senate, when you lose the House [of Representatives] and when two-thirds of governors in this country are Republicans, it is time for a new direction for the Democratic Party.”

Earlier, Mr Sanders reiterated his pledge to work with Mr Trump to punish corporations which abandon US workers — including with a 35 per cent tariff on cars made in Mexico.

On Thursday night, Mr Trump took credit for Ford’s decision not to move production of the Lincoln MKC 4x4 from Louisville, Kentucky, to Cuautitlan, Mexico.

Executive chairman Bill Ford phoned the president-elect to tell him of the decision.

“I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky,” Mr Trump tweeted. “I owed it to the great state of Kentucky for their confidence in me.”

Ford still plans to move production of the Focus and C-Max models from Wayne, Michigan, to Mexico.

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