And in addition to collecting a lot of money, which we're collecting on the tariffs where we put tariffs on the dumping of steel and aluminum - 25 percent on steel, 10 percent on aluminum - we are - I mean, these industries, it's incredible what's going on. U.S. Steel is building many plants and expanding many plants.
Nucor is building - and these are new plants, in many cases. These are big, beautiful plants. We're going to be using the iron ore from Minnesota and other places. And Minnesota is booming because of it, whereas the previous administration shut it down for environmental reasons, they said. But nobody quite got it. And they just shut it down. And it was just collapsing. But we were not going to have a steel industry.
Now, if you just look at it from the standpoint of defense, if you don't have steel, you don't have defense. You're not going to be buying your steel from a foreign country in case you have a problem, which hopefully we won't, ever. But you have to have a steel industry, you have to have a very strong aluminum industry.
And you take a look at what's happened to those industries. But steel is the talk of the world because they're saying the steel industry is - Wilbur knows, because he used to be in that business - the steel industries are coming back. Industry like almost - I can say this: It will be at a level that people won't believe in a very short period of time. And this happened over the last seven or eight months.
You look at what the plans are for U.S. Steel and for Nucor and so many others, where they're building plants, and eventually those prices are going to end up being low because everything is going to be made here. We're taking the iron ore from here, we're taking everything right from our mines. And that's great for our miners, by the way. But we're all doing it here. We don't need outside for that. Nor should we.
The other thing is the quality of the steel is much better, because we were having garbage dumped on our shores. It was sand, it was - it was all sorts of rock in it. It was bad steel. It wasn't structurally good. And we are now having - we're creating a fine quality steel, which to me is a very important thing.
So what we've done with the steel industry in a very short period of time - I would really say over the last year - is being talked about all over the world. We have a steel industry again, and it's really roaring.
MS. TRUMP: Plus, tax cuts have enabled this to really transpire as well. So all of the companies here - the cutting of the corporate rate; the cutting of the individual rates; repatriation of money back from overseas, back to our shores; 100 percent capital expensing - has been just a tremendous boon for the economy.
But one of the elements that we've talked about a lot in this room that's very exciting and that Treasury - Secretary Mnuchin just put out guidance on - in tax reform, there was also opportunity zones, and that was passed. And that's going to uplift. And the governors have designated over 3,900 opportunity zones to stressed, urban, and rural communities. And it incentivizes private sector investment into those communities, which is exactly what we want. So the private sector to go and be incentivized, to invest where otherwise they would have avoided.
So in addition to tax cuts, that's another element that will really help uplift the American economy and fuel the boom we've been experiencing.
MR. KUDLOW: I was just going to say, sir, well-done trade reform can be very pro-growth. That's what you're saying.
THE PRESIDENT: So we were losing a tremendous amount of money, and unfortunately, it's a number that nobody can even believe - close to $800 billion a year. When you hear that number, folks, you can't be too proud of our representatives from the past. But we're redoing our trade deals; we're making them fair and equitable. And for the other countries, too.
But they've taken advantage of us on trade. They've taken our money. They've taken our jobs. And we're stopping that. And we have to take care - I have the expression, "America first." And the fact is, we have to start taking care of our own country, because we were taking care of other countries and we were letting our country go to hell in trade and in so many other ways. We can't do that. We can't do it. With immigration, with the borders, with trade - so many different ways. And we're changing that, and we're making great trade deals from horrible trade deals. And if they don't want to do business with us, that's okay.
But they can't come in and take the wealth from our country. It's a great transfer of wealth. They can't - we had had - we have had one of the greatest transfers of wealth in the history of the world. It's been taken from our country and it's been brought to other countries. And it was only because we had people that were not watching or they didn't know, or they didn't care.
And it's incredible. When I see some of these deals that were made, I say, "How could anybody have agreed to it?" It's basic. It's like - I mean, it's literally first-grade business. It's so simple.
And the end result is it's tougher to get out because they've been so used to making so much money off our country, and we can't let them do that anymore. We're going to start paying down debt. We have a lot of debt. We going to start paying down debt. We have such potential in this country. When I tell you about deals that were made that were so grossly incompetent, they should have never been allowed to be made. And they never changed them. And everybody knew they were bad, and they never changed them. So we're changing them, and we're changing them very rapidly. Our countries, whether they're allies or not, have to treat us fairly, and they haven't been.
MR. KUDLOW: Last one, sir. Appreciate it. More of a personal question. Ivanka was talking about initiative and leadership and hard work, along with reskilling. So you've had an unbelievable career. You were in construction. You were in real estate. You were a very famous television host. And now you happen to be President. Did you go through - did you go through reskilling along the way? (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I never thought of it that way, but I guess I did. Right? (Laughter.) I suspect I did. Look, I've been in a lot of different jobs. I love building. I love the real estate industry. It's been very good to me. I think I've been good for it. I always pride myself on building on time, on budget - ideally, ahead of time and ahead of budget.
And we really - we really have - I've learned a lot. You know, when you build a building, it's almost like every trade: You're involved with the unions, in many cases. You're involved with labor. You're involved with finance. You're involved with design. You're involved with so many different things. In many cases, you're involved with international concepts and deals. So you learn a lot.
And then, I did "The Apprentice," which became a great show - a very, very successful show. Tremendously successful. I did it for 14 seasons, 12 years. It was so successful they put it on twice sometimes. And as soon as I left, that show went down the tubes. So, you know, just one of those things. Right? I don't know if I feel happy about that or sad; I've never figured that out. (Laughter.)
But I don't know if I'd want to leave, Betsy. And they - the show became even more successful. Almost couldn't have been more successful. It was a tremendous success. And I learned a lot from that, too.
And I've certainly learned a lot. We're here almost two years, and we've learned a lot from doing this. And I think we've put a lot of talent to work. We have great people that we work with. And when they're not so good, we make changes. And we have to do them maybe faster than other people would. But I sort of can figure it out pretty well.
And we're doing fantastically well as a country, and a lot of great things are ahead. Our best years are ahead of us. I really believe that. Our best years are truly ahead of us.
MR. KUDLOW: Yes. Yes. I love that. I want to end on that. You're the quintessential optimist. The best years of America have yet to come.
President Trump, thank you so much. (Applause.)
