Remarks at a Listening Session With Members of the National Association of Manufacturers and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Hello, everybody.

Participants. Good morning.

The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have some really good news today that's really fantastic—these numbers. Today I'm delighted to welcome the National Association of Manufacturers to the White House. It's a great group of people. I know many of them well.

And I want to thank your president and CEO Jay Timmons for being here with us today. Great job.

National Association of Manufacturers President and Chief Executive Officer Jay Timmons. Thank you.

The President. Great job, Jay.

My administration is working every day to make it easier for manufacturers to build, hire, and grow in America. We're removing job-killing regulations and lifting the burdens on American industry, like I would say have never been lifted before. We've done a lot of work over the last 60, 70 days, and I think you're seeing some real production.

Maybe, I think we can say this, Mike—like never before.

Earlier this week, I signed an Executive order to end the war on coal. We had coal miners up at the office. It was an amazing scene. You had very tough, very strong, very powerful men—they were crying, actually; and they were crying with happiness. And produce more American energy and more American jobs, which is how I got elected in the first place.

We've created the Task Force in every agency to eliminate wasteful regulations. And today at 3:30, with the Department of Commerce—Wilbur Ross will be up—and we're signing two very powerful Executive orders. It will be something very important—very, very special. And that will be with Commerce.

One of the reasons we're here today is to announce the extraordinary results of a new survey from the National Association of Manufacturers. Your survey shows that 93 percent of manufacturers now have a positive outlook on the future of their business in this country—93 [percent].* And it was, just a few months ago, 56 [percent].* That's a slight difference. [Laughter] That's a slight difference. That tells you something.

That's a 20-year, record high—highest it's been in 20 years, and it's going higher. Believe me, you could come back next month, Jay. [Laughter] I don't know how much higher it can go. And so I'm very proud of that, we're all very proud of that. And the manufacturers are really starting to invest big money, and a lot of things are happening. It's a new surge in optimism, which is sweeping all across our land. These survey results are a further vote of confidence in our plan to bring back jobs, lower taxes, and provide a level playing field for our workers. The manufacturing companies represent—and represented here today—are just an extraordinary group of people. They're leaders. They're brilliant in so many ways. The field has not been a level field. Jobs have been leaving our country, going to China and Mexico and lots of other places.

And you'll be seeing what's happening over the next few weeks. It should be very interesting for you to watch. As you know, the President of China is coming to Florida. We're having a meeting—big meeting—at Mar-a-Lago. We call it the southern White House, which it actually is. [Laughter] It was originally built as the southern White House, a lot of people don't know. But it—sort of strange how it got there.

But it's going to be something, I think, very important, very special. I look very much forward to meeting him and the delegation, and we'll see what happens. But I am very, very proud of what you've been able to do in a short period of time—just this little, short period of time, the optimism is so high. And I see the billions of dollars that are being invested by your people and your representatives in plant and equipment and jobs.

And I appreciate that, Jay, very much. Congratulations. You may want to say a few words.

Mr. Timmons. Well, I do. And I want to reemphasize for the media here that this quarterly survey of our 14,000 members has been going on for 20 years. And to the point you made, this was the highest level of optimism that our manufacturers have expressed in 20 years.

The President. That's fantastic.

Mr. Timmons. And the other statistic that I think you'll find interesting is the right-track, wrong-track question that our manufacturers answered. Just the month before Inauguration Day, the right-track number was only 26 percent. Today it is over 60 percent.

The President. Wow.

Mr. Timmons. So that's a huge growth as well. And that's because of the focus on taxes, regulations, infrastructure investment. We appreciate your commitment to investment in job creation and manufacturing. And we're going to deliver.

The President. Well, thank you very much, Jay. That's really nice.

Mr. Timmons. Thank you.

The President. Thank you. Thank you very much. Patricia, would you like to say something? Pretty outstanding what you've done.

Matrix 4, Inc., Owner and Chief Executive Officer Patricia Miller. Thank you. I appreciate being here today. I own a plastics manufacturing company in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. We're a 3-year entrepreneurial startup in growth phase with a 40-year legacy. It's great to be part of manufacturing in the U.S. The President. That's great, and great job. You've done a great job. Really great.

Ed?

Apache Stainless Equipment Corp. President Ed Paradowski. Good morning, Mr. President. I'm Ed Paradowski, president of Apache Stainless Equipment. We're in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. We manufacture capital equipment out of stainless steel and other high alloys. We employ 175, and most of them are skilled trades people, some of the best skilled trades people in the State of Wisconsin. We are a 100 percent S Corp ESOP, and we would love to have you out in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

The President. Well, I love the State of Wisconsin.

Mr. Paradowski. As do I.

The President. There was a little bit of an upset. I don't think it was an upset. [Laughter] I don't think—I thought we were going to do very well there. But people would—they would consider that a slight upset, right? But we don't consider it that. Thank you. Very good.

Mr. Paradowski. Thank you.

The President. Yes.

Staub Manufacturing Solutions President Steve Staub. Mr. President, good to see you again.

The President. Thank you.

Mr. Staub. We enjoyed having you at our facility back in September. I'm Steve Staub with Staub Manufacturing Solutions in Dayton, Ohio.

The President. I remember.

Mr. Staub. And hopefully you got a chance to see the "First Day" video that we did with the National Association of Manufacturers.

The President. I did. Thank you. I did. Great job. Great—and you've done a great job.

Mr. Staub. Thank you.

The President. Yes.

Eagle Manufacturing Company President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Eddy. Good morning, Mr. President. My name is Joe Eddy. I'm the president and CEO of a company in northern West Virginia called Eagle Manufacturing. We're 125 years old this year, a family-owned business. We manufacture products out of steel and plastic. We make over a thousand industrial safety and hazardous materials handling products. And I bring from West Virginia a major thank you for your work you've done to support the coal.

The President. Great State. Great people. Really. We've really opened it up. Nobody thought we'd act that fast. They thought maybe at the end of a 4-year term, maybe I'd sign it—no. [Laughter] Nobody thought we were going to go that fast.

Mr. Eddy. You created a new hope—[inaudible].

The President. And the people appreciate it. No, we're going—it's going to—we're going to get it going.

Julie.

Arbill Chief Executive Officer Julie Copeland. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. President. I am Julie Copeland. I am the CEO and co-owner, with my sister, of Arbill, a Philadelphia-based company that protects people in the workplace. I partner with manufacturers to make sure that no one gets hurt. We have products and services and technology. And it's a privilege to be here today in this sort of safety continuum.

The President. That's right. You're very safe. Would you say that? [Laughter] Ms. Copeland. Yes, we're safe all right. [Laughter]

The President. Very safe. Chuck. Thank you.

Ms. Copeland. Thank you.

BTE Technologies, Inc., President Charles T. Wetherington. Good morning, Mr. President. Chuck Wetherington. I'm the President of BTE Technologies. We're based in Baltimore, Maryland and Denver, Colorado. We're a manufacturer of high-tech medical devices used in physical therapy and industrial rehab, and we also have a professional services business that focuses on workplace injury reduction.

The President. Good, good.

Mr. Wetherington. So, we are the safety corner here.

The President. That's very good.

Mr. Wetherington. And we work with large employers around the United States and Canada doing that kind of work.

The President. And you're starting to do really well again?

Mr. Wetherington. We are, yes. Thank you.

The President. That's good. That's great.

And you know our great Vice President. [Laughter]

Marlin Steel Wire Products LLC Chief Executive Officer Drew Greenblatt. My name is Drew Greenblatt. I'm the owner of Marlin Steel. We're a steel factory, we make wire baskets and racks for the automotive industry and the pharmaceutical industry. We make everything in Baltimore city, Maryland. We import nothing. We use steel from Illinois, we use steel from Indiana. We're thrilled with the policies that you are pursuing. We're seeing great optimism, and we're thankful for the approach you're taking. And obviously—we're 45 miles from where you're sitting right now—we'd love for you to come visit us.

The President. Okay, good. Well, we're not finished yet, too. A lot of other things are happening, as good as you've had it.

Mr. Greenblatt. Just the beginning.

The President. You haven't seen this in 25 years. That's great. Thank you very much.

Neenah Enterprises, Inc., President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas J. Riordan. Mr. President, good morning. My name is Tom Riordan. I'm the CEO of Neenah Enterprises. We're a casting and forging operation in Neenah, Wisconsin, 145 years old. First products were plowshares back in the Civil War. Today, most of our products are either related to infrastructure in terms of street casting, sewer covers, and so on. The other half of our business is really tied to on/off-road vehicles, with folks like Caterpillar, Paccar, and John Deere. Which again, both are very much dependent upon your policies moving forward.

The President. Right, very good. Thank you. Good job, too.

IMMY Inc. Chief Executive Officer Doug Magyari. Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Doug Magyari. I'm the CEO of IMMY, Inc. We're a Troy, Michigan company, suburb of Detroit. And we're very much a leading-edge research and development company on advanced technologies, and in particular, we've built the most advanced augmented reality and virtual reality glasses in the world. And it's an extremely important technology that's going to affect not only everybody at this table, but really every facet of our lives. And huge military applications and all sorts of medical applications, as well as entertainment.

And it's such an important technology, that we've made a commitment to manufacture it here in the United States.

The President. Great.

Mr. Magyari. And we really appreciate what you're doing to help facilitate in making that happen.

The President. We have a lot of plants going up now in Michigan that were never going to be there if I—if I didn't win this election, those plants would never even think about coming back. They were gone. Were you thinking about getting out?

Mr. Magyari. I wouldn't abandon the United States under any circumstances. [Laughter] But Michigan, we definitely have had a rough go, and the things that you're doing and a lot of initiatives are really bringing Michigan back.

The President. Big progress in Michigan.

Ariel Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Karen Buchwald-Wright. Hello. It's nice to see you again.

The President. Nice to see you again.

Ms. Buchwald-Wright. I'm Karen Buchwald-Wright. And I'm the president and CEO of a family business that manufactures natural gas compressors. We're from Mt. Vernon, Ohio. And gas compressors are used in the oil and gas industries, so I'm especially thankful that you have gotten the Keystone——

The President. You're going to be very busy.

Ms. Buchwald-Wright. ——and some other things going again. Yes, we are very busy, actually.

Mr. Timmons. And they just celebrated 50 years.

Ms. Buchwald-Wright. Yes, yes.

The President. Wow. You have to be—I mean, it's a big difference. That industry has changed over the last couple of months.

Ms. Buchwald-Wright. Yes it has.

The President. Over the last—actually, over the last couple of weeks, that industry has changed.

Ms. Buchwald-Wright. Yes.

The President. Good

Ms. Buchwald-Wright. It's great.

The President. It's going to be a lot of jobs.

Carolina Color Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Barr. Good morning, Mr. President. I'm Matt Barr with Carolina Color. We manufacture colorings for the plastics industry. We're a family-owned business. We just—we also celebrated our 50th anniversary this year.

The President. Great.

Mr. Barr. We have 120 employees. We have a facility in Delaware, Ohio, and we're headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina. Thank you.

The President. Nice to have you. Great place.

ACE Clearwater Enterprises President and Chief Executive Officer Kellie Johnson. Good morning, Mr. President. I'm Kellie Johnson, president of ACE Clearwater Enterprises. It's a 60-year-old family business.

Mr. Timmons. A one-up [Laughter]

Ms. Johnson. I'm third generation. We're a supplier to the aerospace and power generation industries. We build products out of metal. If it flies or is launched, our parts are on it. And we employ 200 of the best men and women in our industry.

The President. That's fantastic.

Ms. Johnson. And on behalf of all of them, thank you for what you're doing for our economy.

The President. No, thank you. It's a great honor.

Ms. Johnson. We appreciate it. And we would love to have you come and visit next time when you're in southern California.

The President. Good.

Ms. Johnson. In fact, I'll never forget my husband and I approaching you on the lobby of your golf course in Palos Verdes when the flag controversy was going on. And we respected your position, and we are so proud that that flag is flying today.

The President. Good. It worked out very well.

Ms. Johnson. Thank you. It did work out well.

The President. That was a very good decision. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

President Xi Jinping of China

Q. Any comment on Michael Flynn, Mr. President?

Q. Are you looking forward to your visit with the Chinese President?

The President. Yes, I am.