Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 Remarks On
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Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 Remarks on Signing an Executive Order on Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects and an Exchange With Reporters January 31, 2019 The President. Well, thank you very much. I'm honored to be here with many of the great American workers as we take historic action to accelerate the incredible revival of American manufacturing. It truly is a revival. Nobody thought it was possible, actually. And not only is it possible, but we're thriving. We're also grateful to be joined by Secretary Acosta, Administrator McMahon, and Representative Robert Aderholt, Mario Diaz-Balart. And we're working on a lot of interesting projects in your neck of the woods, aren't we, huh? How's that all going? Venezuela? Representative Mario R. Diaz-Balart. Mr. President, you are a champion of freedom in this hemisphere. So—— The President. Wow. I didn't expect that. I never told him to say that. [Laughter] Well, that was a great move. Every once in a while, you do that. [Laughter] And you too, all right? That I can tell you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Robert Aderholt. Representative Robert B. Aderholt. Hey, hey. I'm back again. The President. Robert, thank you very much. David Joyce, Anthony Gonzalez, and David Rouzer. Thank you all for being here. We really worked hard on this. And I appreciate your support. In the 8 years before I took office, we lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs. They were leaving. People were talking about the fact that you needed a magic wand; you'll never bring them back. You remember the previous administration, he said that they said—he said—they all said you needed a magic wand; manufacturing jobs were over. I guess you people heard that too. It was a little bit discouraging. Participants. We heard that. Yes, sir. The President. And since the election, we've gained more than 500,000 jobs—and that number is going to be very soon to 700,000 jobs—all in the manufacturing world, which is a beautiful world, a high-paying world, and very important for our country. Last year, we saw the biggest increase in manufacturing employment in more than 20 years. Early in my Presidency, I issued an Executive order directing the Federal Government to live by two very crucial rules: buy American and hire American. And I think that sounds appropriate. Remember in the old days? It was not that. It was almost the opposite. You'd say, "Where are they coming from?" Thanks to my Executive order and a really great group of people, we have increased reliance on American-made goods very, very substantially. Federal agencies are now spending an additional $24 billion on American-made products instead of going to other countries or foreign-made products. 1 Federal spending on foreign goods is now the lowest it's been in more than 10 years, and it's going down very substantially. And by the way, we don't get treated great by many countries in terms of our trade deals, and that's changing rapidly. But we are now looking out a little bit for ourselves, and it's about time. Today I'm taking action to build on this tremendous success by strengthening the "buy American" principle for Federal infrastructure and Federal spending. We want American roads, bridges, and railways and everything else to be built with American iron, American steel, American concrete, and American hands. And if you look at what's happened with the steel industry, it's actually amazing. The steel industry is thriving now and it was dead when I came to office. It was dead. It was a dead industry. They were dumping steel all over the place. The jobs were going. And if any of you are in the steel industry, I think you can probably tell them, you know. And aluminum too. But when you look at what's happened to the steel industry, it's been incredible. One of the great successes. And now prices are starting to come down because they're competing with each other. Nucor and U.S. Steel and so many of these companies, they're building many, many plants all over the United States. And as those plants open, they're finally competing with themselves. We literally were not going to have steel companies. We weren't going to make steel in this country. And that in itself is a very important thing. We have to have steel. There are some products you have to have. And by the way, steel is one of them. You talk about defense—how do you do it without steel and aluminum and the kinds of things that we're really very heavily focused on. By signing this order today, we renew our commitment to an essential truth: It matters where something is made, and it matters very greatly. When I came to office, and I witnessed for many years—for decades, frankly—they didn't care where it was made. I care where it's made. It should be made right here in the U.S.A. And we've taken a very strong stand. I want to introduce, before I sign, Peter Navarro and Kevin Hassett, two of my great economic people. And they're going to give you a little talk as to what's happened and how good we're doing. Peter, do you want to start? Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter K. Navarro. Thank you, Mr. President. I remember back during the campaign, the naysayers said that this President could not restore the manufacturing base. I'm just going to show you a couple pictures here. Council of Economic Advisers Kevin A. Hassett. I'll hold this one. Director Navarro. What we have here is a chart that shows the loss of 192,000 jobs during the 8 years of the Obama administration. It did tick up a little bit during Obama's last 2 years: 73,000. But it is absolutely dwarfed by the policies of this President: 473,000 since Inauguration Day and over 500,000 since the election. And then, you can see how the emphasis is on this administration in putting men and women who work with their hands to work. You can see the jobs created in the Obama administration: One percent of the total job gains were manufacturing compared to 10 percent. 2 And the folks here that you see on the President's right come from across this great country, and they build essentially the mother's milk of Americana: its lampposts, its fire hydrants, its water mains. And we salute these workers today coming in this White House. Kevin is going to show you another chart that shows how these distribution of manufacturing gains are across this country, and then we'll kick it back to Mr. President. Chairman Hassett. And again, the economics literature, Mr. President, when you were running for office basically said that manufacturing was going the way of agriculture in the previous century, that it was just on an inevitable decline as a percentage of GDP. But it also focused a lot on this idea that there was a "rust belt" in America. There was a place where there used to be manufacturing, where there was disproportionate harm to workers. And I think the thing that's really, really interesting about the manufacturing jobs that have been created by our policies—your policies—are that they're scattered throughout America. The dark red part is a place where manufacturing jobs are up by 20 percent or more since you last took office. The President. Wow. That's fantastic. Chairman Hassett. And then the lighter reds are 10 percent or more. And the lightest red is 5 percent or more. But if you look at all the pockets all across the country, including in places that people used to call the Rust Belt, where manufacturing employment is booming, what it means is that there's basically a "boom belt" from coast to coast that's been created by our policies. I want to thank you, sir. The President. Well, you know, Kevin, when I took over, the Rust Belt was really in trouble. Many people were saying it's dying, it's dead; people were leaving. And I love the Rust Belt, and the Rust Belt is no longer the Rust Belt as far as I'm concerned. It's vibrant. It's doing so well. You look at all of those red marks, those red marks are where it's flourishing. Tremendous numbers. And that's fantastic. We're very proud. I wish, frankly, that the media would report how well we're doing in manufacturing, how well we're doing with the economy. They don't seem to report how well we're doing. I think if you had another President, it would be the biggest story, because it really is the biggest story, or certainly one of the biggest stories. And you see the market, how it is. It's hit 25,000 yesterday. We're doing great. We're doing great as a country. And we have a lot of bite-back, because other countries are not doing well. China is having a very hard time. They're here now. We're going to be seeing them a little bit later. We're trying to work out a new trade deal with China. I think it will happen.