Remarks by President Trump at the 3rd Annual Made in America Product Showcase | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

White House South Lawn  •  Washington D.C  •  July 15  •  12:32 P.M. EDT
    ("Hail to the Chief" is played.)

    THE PRESIDENT: That sounds nice, doesn't it? Beautiful. Thank you very much. And thank you very much. Terrific talent.

    Please sit down. Please.

    I want welcome everyone to the White House. We are very excited to be hosting our third annual Made in America Showcase. It's all about "Made in America." (Applause.) We just started this, and this is my third already. And I just went around and saw these incredible companies that make everything from the THAAD missiles to beautiful boats. And I said, "How would that boat do against the THAAD missile?" And it wasn't a good answer. (Laughter.) The boat is going to have a little problem, but that's okay.

    But I just want to say the engineering - inside, as you know, we have incredible things. I'm going in right now to look. I saw some of it yesterday. Incredible things. Made in the USA.

    We're here today to celebrate and support the most incredible products in the world. And this is just a very representative sampling, because we're making more product here than we ever have.

    Joining us today are manufacturers from all 50 states. And they are terrific talents, terrific craftsmen, terrific businesspeople. We have hats from Wyoming, sandals from Florida, tabasco from Louisiana, Airstream trailers - the Airstream is a great trailer; I've seen it for many years, and they're doing better than ever - from Ohio, and custom-built motorcycles from the great state of Indiana.

    We also have represented, and we have a lot of folks here from Litespeed Bikes, from Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a result of moving certain of its operations back to the United States - I love to hear this, because that's what I like: when they move back. We don't have to make product in other countries. Its parent company has experienced a 70 percent - and that just happened. They just announced 70 percent growth over the last two years. So they moved their operations back, and they're 70 percent up in growth. So I want to congratulate you, Litespeed. And I want to congratulate everybody. That's fantastic. (Applause.)

    And also, a very special thank-you to KC Andrews with Gameday Ironworks in Oklahoma for making this beautiful presidential seal. It is a beauty. I think we have it displayed someplace right here. And I specifically said, "How much?" Because I want to buy it. I don't know if they gave me a good price, but we're going to get it. We'll get it. We'll put it up at the White House. It's beautiful, and so many of their other projects and products are incredible. It was forged from American pride and with America pride and American craftsmanship. And it was 100 percent American steel.


    Our steel industry is doing very well. We put massive tariffs on dumped steel. They were dumping steel. Our steel industry was going out of business. If I hadn't been elected, you would have no steel industry right now. It would be gone. And we have not only steel, energy, and so many other things. We have - we're vibrant. We have the hottest economy anywhere on Earth right now.

    Today, I also viewed boats that were proudly displayed by Cobalt Boats from Kansas and Freeman Boatworks from South Carolina, and a farm irrigation system from Nebraska's T-L Irrigation. I want to thank those three companies. It's not easy to get these big, beautiful products here, and you get them here. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much.

    I also want to share our appreciation to Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson for showing us the incredible THAAD Missile Defense System - the best in the world, by far - and for keeping the Sikorsky helicopter plant in Pennsylvania open, saving 465 jobs.

    I called Marillyn a number of weeks ago. I said, "I read a story where they're going to be closing your helicopter plant in Pennsylvania. We couldn't do that." I said, "Marillyn, you got to do something. I don't want to..." And I really appreciate it, Marillyn. They're keeping the plant open. Everybody in Pennsylvania is happy. (Applause.) And we will continue to make Sikorsky helicopters in Pennsylvania. Thank you, Marillyn.

    Some of the manufacturers represented today have been around for a long time - more than a century, in a couple of cases. Johnson Woolen Mills was founded in Vermont before the Civil War. Today, Stacy Manosh is the fourth generation of her family to run the company. And, Stacy, wherever you may be - hi, Stacy - please stand up, Stacy. Congratulations. That's great. (Applause.)

    Others are just getting started, like the Snake Bite Company in Missouri. I thought it might be a snake. It has nothing to do with snakes. I'm happy about that. (Laughter.) And I looked at your product last night and it's incredible. Kevin Kelly raised startup funding online just a few years ago, and now he's selling specialty bottly [sic] - bottle openers and so many other things on two continents. And the product is amazing. And, Kevin, congratulations. That's a great job. That's a great job. Thank you very much, Kevin. (Applause.) Where does "Snake Bite" come from? Where does that term come from?

    MR. KELLY: (Off-mic.) (Inaudible.)

    THE PRESIDENT: Ah, yep. I get it. Okay. Well, it's been working, right? It's been working.

    But while those here today create many different goods, you're also devoted to one of the greatest missions on Earth: making the best products, from the best materials, with the best workers anywhere in the world, right here in the United States of America. Right? Made in America. Made in the USA. Call it either way, but that's what we're doing. (Applause.)


    And, you know, when I took office, I was told by the previous administration that manufacturing jobs would be disappearing. There was no way. They said you'd need a miracle. Right? You'd need a miracle. Well, we have a miracle because we up - we're up 600,000 manufacturing jobs since the election. (Applause.) So it's been an extraordinary resurgence of American manufacturing.

    We've added more than 6 million jobs since I was elected, including over 1 million jobs in manufacturing, engineering and construction. As I said, 600,000 jobs in pure manufacturing, and that number is going to go substantially higher.

    Japan and other countries are at my absolute request, order - call it whatever you want. They're sending tremendous and building tremendous plants now in the United States. We hadn't had auto plants built in many, many years. And now we're having many in Michigan, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in North Carolina, South Carolina. Many, many plants are being built and being expanded. And that was not happening. Our auto companies and many companies were leaving the United States. Now they're staying. They have a big disincentive to leave. We're not happy when they leave. When they leave, it's not the same.

    Last year, we saw the biggest increase in manufacturing jobs in more than 20 years. Under my administration, manufacturing's share of total job gains is the largest it's been by any President in over one half a century. And don't forget, in the old days, they manufactured, so I'm competing against some pretty tough statistics, and yet it's over 50 years. Unemployment has also reached the lowest rate in our country in over 51 years. (Applause.)

    And many groups - I have to say, African American unemployment - if you look at African American, Asian American, Hispanic American unemployment, it's the lowest it's ever been in the history of our country. Women's unemployment - the lowest it's ever been in over 70 years. And soon we're going to have the all-time record for women's unemployment.

    And today, American manufacturers are contributing $250 billion - think of that - $250 billion more to our economy than they contributed before this great election that took place in 2016.

    We're heeding the wisdom - and you people know because many of you are indeed manufacturers; in your own way, manufacturers with great talent - we're heeding the wisdom of our Founding Fathers by restoring our economic independence and reawakening our industrial might. And that's what's happened. Whether it's jobs or making something, that's exactly what happened.

    Previous administrations allowed foreign countries to steal our jobs and plunder our wealth. They stole our wealth. They stole so much, and it was allowed to go on so long. But it's not going on any longer. You take a look at what's happening. Look at today's front page in the Wall Street Journal. You'll see where China has had its worst year in 27 years. And I'm not looking for that. But we had a deal with China, and they decided not to make that deal. They said, "Let's renegotiate." I said, "No, thank you." And we put tariffs on China - very big tariffs on China. (Applause.)


    And we're standing up for the American worker like our country has never stood up for the worker before - certainly not in the 100-year or 50-year era. And I think we can probably go back right to the beginning, because nobody stood up for the worker like I'm standing up for the worker.

    To protect our defense industrial base - which is probably about the most important, if you think - we placed tariffs on foreign aluminum and foreign steel, which brought it not to a complete halt - we still get some and they're paying a lot of money right into the Treasury - but it's been amazing the difference that it's had.

    And for our farmers, we've taken in tens of billions of dollars in tariffs from China. But China stopped dealing with our farmers, so I asked our great Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, "What kind of number are you talking about? What have they left?" He said, "Sixteen billion dollars, sir, taken off the table." I said, "That's okay." We've taken in much, much more - many times that - in tariffs. So I'm going to give the farmers - we're going to help them out because they are great patriots. We're going to give them $16 billion. And we just did. Been approved. Been everything. And I approved it. (Applause.)

    So our farmers didn't lose anything by the fact that China targeted our farmers. They targeted the farmers. They said, "You know, President Trump did great with the farmers. The farmers love him and he loves them, so we'll hurt the farmers." Well, the farmers are patriots. I never - I hadn't had one farmer say, "Please make a fast deal, sir. Please make a fast deal." The biggest beneficiary will be the farmers.

    But the $16 billion that wasn't spent, we're putting back into the farm and ag system. And the farmers are thrilled, I must tell you that. (Applause.)

    And we're taking the toughest-ever action to confront China's chronic trade abuse. They were doing numbers on us for many years. I watched Sleepy Joe Biden the other day talking about China. "We would fight China on trade." Well, he didn't do it for - he's been there for like 45 years. And he didn't do it in eight years because they ate our lunch during the Obama administration.

    It was only recently that - well, I mean, "recently," but lots of warnings for the last period of time. And then you have statutory constraints where you can only go here, here, here. And we did that, right at the beginning. And now they're paying a very big price, and hopefully we'll see what happens.

    We're going to have good relationships with China. President Xi is a friend of mine. He's a good friend. I used to say he's good friend of mine; we're probably not quite as close now. But I have to be for our country. He's for China and I'm for the USA, and that's the way it's got to be. And this should have never been allowed to happen.