Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2019 Remarks at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio March 20, 2019 Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! The President. Well, you'd better love me; I kept this place open, that I can tell you. They said, "We're closing it." And I said, "No, we're not." And now you're doing record business. The job you do is incredible. And I'm thrilled to be here in Ohio with the hard-working men and women of Lima. And this is some tank plant. There's nothing like it in the world. You make the finest equipment in the world. You really know what you're doing. They just gave me a little briefing on a couple of those tanks. I want to get into them, but then I remember when a man named Dukakis got into a tank. [Laughter] And I remember, he tanked when he got into the tank. [Laughter] He tanked—I never saw anybody tank like that. So I said, maybe I'll—but I'm a little bigger than him; I think it probably would work out okay. How would I look in a tank? Okay? Audience members. Yeah! The President. Yes, not bad. Not bad. The helmet was bigger than he was. That was not good. [Laughter] We're here today to celebrate a resounding victory for all of you, for Northwest Ohio, and for our great military and for our entire country. Incredible victory. After so many years of budget cuts and layoffs, today, jobs are coming back and pouring back, frankly, like never before. Companies are coming back into our country; they want the action. Production is ramping up in the biggest way. And the awesome M1 Abrams tank is once again thundering down the assembly line, A–1. I want to thank Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan. He's done an incredible job. In fact, ISIS—let me tell you about ISIS. They're not doing so well. [Laughter] You know, we took over the caliphate. You'll see it tonight. When I came in, it was a mess. Where the hell is that chart? [Laughter] Folks, they gave me all economic charts. They didn't give me the ISIS chart. But if you did—bring it up if anybody has it. Bring it up. When I took over, it was a mess. They were all over the place. All over the—all over Syria and Iraq. And you'd see it was a sea of red. And now you look at it, and there's no red. No red. And you look at some of the economic numbers; nobody thought we'd ever see numbers like that in our country—not for a long time, not for ever. And what we're doing has been incredible. What you're doing has been more incredible. You stuck it out, and now you've got one of the most successful military plants anywhere in the world. It's great. So thank you very much, Pat Shanahan. Also thank you to the Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper. He's been fantastic. Thank you. [At this point, a White House aide brought a map up the stage and handed it to the President.] Oh, good. Better late than never. [Laughter] 1 Here's the story: So you know, I don't want to have them make a big chart because it costs too much. You know, I'm a business guy. They said, "Sir, we could make a big chart." I said, "How much does it cost?" Like it matters. But it matters to me. Does that make sense to you? Audience members. Yeah! The President. So two maps, identical, except the one on top was Syria. See that? The one on top was Syria in November of '16. That's—you remember that date? November of '16. November 8. [Laughter] We had a little victory that night. We had a little victory that a lot of us weren't surprised by it, but the other side said, "Where did all of those people come from?" [Laughter] And I said: "They just didn't like candidates for a lot of years. They didn't vote." So what happens is—this is all ISIS. Now, on the bottom—that's as of today—this is ISIS. There's none. The caliphate is gone, as of tonight. Pretty good. [Applause] That's pretty good, right? We took over a mess. We took over a mess with North Korea. We took over a mess in the Middle East. We took over. A lot of bad things were happening and the economy was not doing well. It was heading in the wrong direction. You remember that. It was going to go bad, and then we opened up with the regulation cuts and all of the other things we've done, including the big tax cut. But it made a big difference, made a big difference. And we'll show you some numbers in a little while. I want to also thank Major General Brian Cummings for the incredible leadership and service; you have done an unbelievable job. Thank you, Brian. Thank you very much. Thank you. We're also honored to be joined by several of the Ohio leaders, friends of mine—terrific people: Senator Rob Portman. Rob, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Rob. A man who I will never, I promise, wrestle. He was one of the best wrestlers in the history of college wrestling. His record is so ridiculously good. I said, "Were you as good as Dan Gable?" He said, "No." See, if it were me, I would've said, "Yes, I was much better." [Laughter] You know who Dan Gable is. Jim Jordan, a great guy. And a great champion. Great, great athlete. Great champion. Thank you. He is tough. You'll want to have him on your side. Another one you want on your side always, Mike Turner. Mike, thank you. Thank you, Mike. Great. Warren Davidson. Warren, thank you. And, Bob Latta, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Warren and Bob. And a man who we're very proud of because, along with Mike, he ran a great race: Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted. He ran a great race for Governor. We came in that final day—they were a little bit down, against a tough opponent, who I was not a big fan of, and I didn't like the people that were supporting him too much—Pocahontas and others. [Laughter] And I came that final day, and we had a day that was incredible, and they won by—what did you win by? Six or seven points, right? It was an incredible—huh? Even higher. That's pretty good. Good. I'll see Mike in a little while. That's great. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Proud of you. To our plant leaders, Lieutenant Colonel Travis Adkins and Henry Kennedy, we appreciate everything you do to keep the Army "Rolling Along" full speed ahead. Incredible job. We're grateful to General Dynamics—incredible company—Phebe Novakovic. How did I do with that one? Novakovic. It's a little tricky, but that's okay. What a job you do. Thank you. 2 Great job. Thank you for the tour too. And the hard-working members of the United Auto Workers. Now you've got to get over to a place that I like a lot, Lordstown. And you've got to get that. You know, the only place—General—what's going on with General Motors? We have the best economy we've ever had. We have the lowest employment— unemployment that we've had in 51 years; soon will be the record of all time. And what's going on with General Motors? Get that plant open or sell it to somebody and they'll open it. Everybody wants it. Sell it to somebody or open it yourselves. Get it going now and the UAW will help you. The UAW—you're going to help. The UAW just promised they're going to help. Get it open now. Don't wait. They said they have discussions coming up in September, October. I said, why not tomorrow? Why not on Monday? What do you have to wait months for? Get the discussions going. Get it open. Lordstown, it's a great area. I guess I like it because I won so big there. [Laughter] But we're doing a job, and this State has been—we're very proud of what's happened in Ohio under our Federal auspices. We've gotten so many things done, and this plant is one of our great achievements. To all of our Active Duty servicemembers and our wonderful veterans, thank you for serving your country with such tremendous distinction and honor. And to every welder and machinist and assembler and mechanic and engineer and electrician and carpenter and every patriot here at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center: Thank you for pouring out your heart and your sweat and your soul to help restore the might of the American military, which very soon will be stronger than it ever was. We've bought billions and billions of dollars' worth of new planes and tanks and many other things. So, thank you all. Great job. And the fact is, we have the best tanks driven by the best soldiers, made by the best workers anywhere in the world.