Remarks at the "Made in America" Product Showcase

Well, thank you very much, everybody. Please. This is a lot of fun. I just took a trip around and looked at your merchandise, and it's—nobody makes it better.

We're working right now on this, right here. I had these hats: "Make Our Farmers Great Again." That's what's happening. We're stopping the barriers to other countries. They send them in and take advantage of us, and we can't go the other way. And this is the way it's going to go: "Make Our Farmers Great Again." So I just had them made up, and that's the way I feel. We'll give them to some of the farmers here, huh?

But I want to thank you and welcome everybody to the White House for the second annual "Made in America" Showcase. Made in America. Made in the U.S.A. What do you like better? Huh? Made in the U.S.A.? Made in America? Both pretty good. Both pretty good.

I remember, when I was growing up, I'd see "Made in America" all over the place. A little bit "Made in the U.S.A.," but "Made in America." Everything had "Made in America." And we're starting that again, and it's happening again, as you know.

We are here today to celebrate the greatest products in the world, products made with American heart, American sweat, and American pride. We are thrilled to showcase incredible American-made goods from all 50 States. We have snowboards from Colorado. Where is the snowboard person? Those were nice snowboards. [Laughter] Ten years ago, I was perfect. Now, I don't know. I'm not so sure. [Laughter] Beautiful job.

Cowboy boots from Texas. Where's cowboy boots? I like those boots. I like those boots. Baseball bats from Pennsylvania. I used to play baseball. Good. Boats, cars, spaceship—you know about the spaceship. And, in case you hadn't noticed, there's an F-35 stealth fighter outside. And it's beautiful—parked on the South Lawn. I guess getting it here—I know it didn't land on the South Lawn. [Laughter] But it's something very special. It's—you can't see it. Where's Lockheed? Marillyn? Yes.

It's incredible. I went to one of the pilots—I was saying, "How do you compare this with a certain other plane from the enemy?" [Laughter] They said, "Well, the difference is, when we fight, they can't see our plane." I said, "That sounds like a pretty big advantage. Right?" [Laughter] It's called stealth—super stealth.

All of these products have something special very much in common: a big, beautiful seal, and that's—with the sign, in this case, "Made in the U.S.A."

Also joining us today and at the event is NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Where's Jim? Jim, thank you. Jim, thank you. And, Marillyn, thank you for being here—from Lockheed Martin.

After many years of decline, American manufacturing is coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before. It's happening. We are in the midst of a great economic revival in the United States. We've added 3.7 million new jobs since the election, including more than 370,000 in manufacturing alone. Remember, during the campaign, they all said, "Oh, you're never going to add manufacturing jobs." "That's obsolete," they would say. I said: "It's obsolete? To make things is obsolete?" I guess they were wrong. Right? I guess they were wrong. We're adding a lot more.

Almost a million workers—discouraged by the policies of the previous administration and, frankly, other administrations—have now returned to the workforce. New unemployment claims are at the lowest level in almost half a century. Think of that: the lowest level, unemployment claims. That's a big one. Unemployment rates for Americans—for African Americans and Hispanics and Asians—Americans, all of us—lowest ever. These are the lowest levels for African Americans, for Hispanics, and for Asians ever recorded. Think of that: ever recorded.

And women unemployment recently reached the 65-year low. We think that's probably the lowest ever. But as I've been saying, in 2 weeks or 3 weeks, it will be; it will be the lowest in history. Pretty bad when you say "lowest in 65 years." And I say that's not as good as "history." So—but very shortly, it will be. We'll be saying "history."

Manufacturing wages are expected to rise at the fastest rate in more than 17 years. And 95 percent of American manufacturers—which I love—that's what we love, is manufacturers—are optimistic about the future. That's the highest level ever recorded: 95 percent. We have achieved together, in the last 18 months, something that is totally unprecedented.

For decades, the United States allowed other countries to steal our jobs, close our factories, and plunder our wealth. What was happening was horrible. I used to talk about it. For 20 years, in the private sector, I said, "How did they let this happen?" Little did I know, I'd get my shot. That's what happened. [Laughter] And that's what's happening to us, because it's really been positive.

Our leaders in Washington did nothing. They did nothing. They let our factories leave. They let our people lose their jobs—given to other jobs, workers in faraway lands. That's not free trade; that's fool's trade. That's stupid trade. And we don't do that kind of trade anymore.

The European Union has been very tough on the United States, but they're coming in to see me on Wednesday. And we'll see if we can work something out. And otherwise, we'll have to do something with respect to the millions of cars that they send in every year. But maybe we can work something out. They are all coming in, their top people.

We're talking to China, who had a $375 billion trade surplus last year with the United States. Think of it: $375 billion. Or looking at it differently, we had a $375 billion trade deficit. That's not good. And we're talking to China very seriously.

We're talking to Mexico on NAFTA. And I think we're going to have something worked out. The new President, terrific person; I spoke to him at length on a call—did a great job, got a tremendous vote. And they have a lot of confidence in him in Mexico, and that's good. But we're talking to them about doing something very dramatic, very positive for both countries.

We're demanding fairness with the World Trade Organization. It's been a disaster for the United States, and we want fairness. We'd lose court cases. We always had a minority of judges. They gave us fewer judges than other countries had. And we'd lose cases; nobody knew why. I said: "I know why. Because you don't have judges from this country." You'd have a minority, 3-to-2, with 3 being on the other side. And we've started to do much better, lately, in winning cases. But America never waves the white flag. We only wave the red, white, and blue flag. The era of economic surrender for the United States is over. It's over. And you people have been really leading the charge. America is fighting back, and we are winning again.

You know my story about winning? We're going to win so much, you'll get tired of winning. I don't think you're going to get tired. [Laughter]

Throughout our history, our greatest leaders—Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Lincoln, McKinley—people don't know too much about McKinley. Take a look. It was an incredible, really, incredible economic time for our country. People wanted to come in and take from our country. They had to pay for it. They had to pay for the privilege of taking from our country. We all understood that, to be strong—and every one of them, our Nation—that we really had to be a manufacturing nation. You have to be able to be a manufacturing nation.

I'm very proud to say that our steel industry is coming back at a level that nobody thought possible. Factories are opening up all over. No matter where I'm going, they're saying, you know, we just opened up a steel plant that was closed for 5 years or 10 years or 20 years, in some cases.

U.S. Steel now is opening up six plants, and they're expanding in other plants. And we're very proud of that. But we were being dumped on. You know what that means: We were being dumped on. They were dumping all over this country. And now our steel industry is coming back. And you need a steel industry. That's not like a normal thing, where you make even some of your products—which I love—but it's not steel. We need steel. We need it in case of an emergency of the wrong kind.

My administration is reclaiming our proud manufacturing heritage, because we are finally putting, again, America first. We're tearing down barriers to our exports, protecting our intellectual property, and defending our companies from unfair foreign trade practices, of which there are many. We're putting the trade cheaters on notice: No one rips off the United States of America anymore. It's happened too much for too long and stopping.

To give you a level playing field, we've cut record numbers of regulations. In the history of our country, nobody has cut more regulations than me, and I've only been here for less than 2 years. So I'm talking about 2 years, 4 years, 16 years, 8 years. Doesn't matter how long they're here, we've cut more regulations than any other President, and we've just been here for shorter than 2 years.

We passed the biggest tax cut and reform in American history. We've gotten rid of the individual mandate from health care, which was a disaster for you and your businesses, where people had to pay for the privilege of not having to pay to get bad health care. [Laughter] Sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty basic. You pay for not having to buy. And a lot of people wondered about that one. That's gone. That's a big thing. That's gone. That was the most unpopular element of Obamacare, and Obamacare is very rapidly fading away. We had it done, but we missed it by one vote. Somebody changed their mind in the middle of the evening. Wonder who that was. [Laughter] But just one of those things.

But we're very far progressed. And we're now opening up health care policies and making it possible for people to buy great health care at a low cost. And we're very proud of that. And it's opened—Secretary of Labor Acosta has done an incredible job. And Secretary Azar is in the process of doing something that's going to be very big. And all of you people will be big beneficiaries of that in the business world, also. Since our tax cuts were passed, more than 6 million Americans have received a bonus or a pay raise, in some cases, a very substantial bonus. And they're really liking it. Creating over $7 trillion of worth for our country, we vaulted up to a very strong number-one position. We're the largest in the world—largest economy in the world—by a lot more than when I took over the Presidency.

Small businesses can now deduct 20 percent of their business income, and manufacturers can now immediately deduct every penny spent on new equipment. You never thought you were going to see that. So you go out and buy new equipment—or if you're selling equipment, that's even better, because I know a lot of you folks make the equipment. A 1-year deal, think of it: expensing. One-year expensing. Did you ever think you were going to see that? And people are buying. They're buying in record numbers.

As a result of our tax cuts and in the bill itself, $300 billion in foreign profits have been brought back home to America, where it belongs, in the first quarter of this year alone. Apple is spending $350 billion on new plants and an incredible campus. And many other companies are doing the same. Marillyn, I think Lockheed Martin is doing a big investment, I heard just the other day, a very big investment.

Every time a new factory opens, every time jobs are returned to our shores, every time we buy a product made by our own American neighbors, we are renewing the bonds of love and loyalty that link us all together as Americans. There's tremendous spirit in our country right now. Sometimes, you don't see it, but there is. And you're producers; you produce like nobody else. And the spirit is incredible. Esprit de corps.

Today we declare a simple truth: It matters where something is made; it matters to me. You know, I'd hear the globalists talking about, like: "It's okay to close a car factory or a car plant in Michigan. And it's okay to move that plant to Mexico and hire different workers and fire everybody in Michigan." But it's not okay for me. To me, it's a very bad thing. And that's stopping. Plants are moving back to Michigan, and they're moving back in big numbers. And they're moving back to Ohio. They're coming into Iowa in a lot of different ways.

And ethanol, as you know, is taking on whole new leaps and bounds. A lot of things are happening. Pennsylvania, you see what's going on there with steel. Pennsylvania is—incredible what's happening in Pennsylvania. But you look at just steel: When you hear steel is doing well, you know Pennsylvania is doing well. But car plants are moving back into our country at numbers that soon will be records like we've never set before. The more we make things in America, the stronger America becomes. That's why we will always live by two crucial rules: Buy American, and hire American.

These principles gave rise to centuries of American prosperity, from Ford's Model T to the F-150 that I just saw, which was beautiful; from the Wright Brothers to that beautiful Orion space capsicule [capsule; White House correction.] on the South Lawn—you have the space capsule, and every part is made right here in America. That was my first question.

And NASA is, as you know, is really in a position that it hasn't been in in decades. People are excited about it. And for some reason—I just told the guys, for some reason, rich people love rockets. They love them. [Laughter] I said, let them send—let them spend. We'll lease them the pad. Get a lot of money. Don't worry, they don't care. They just want to have their rocket go to Mars. Everybody wants to be the first. So let them go up, and let them do it. Let these rich guys—they love those rockets. [Laughter] I never liked it as much as them. That's okay.

But we have the real estate. You know, you can't send too many rockets up from too many locations. We have the places. We have the best places there are. So we have a lot of work going on at NASA that's being done by NASA. We also have a lot of work going on that's done by these very rich people that love sending rocket ships up to various places. And we're going to learn, and we're going to give them a lot of credit for doing it. It's great. When they want to do it, we think it's great.

American ingenuity built the railroads, it linked the highways, put up the skyscrapers, and landed a man on the face of the Moon. We can only imagine the incredible new marvels this century will bring. Can you imagine? You look at some of the things that are done today. I look at simple computer screens and what you have today and what you didn't have 2 years ago. Can you imagine what it's going to be in the future?

But what we do is that these marvels and—you know, you look at them—will dream—they've been forged. They've all been made in America. They will be made by the great, hard-working patriots, like the people in this room. Incredible people.

I have to say, you know, I know you've been through a lot over the last 10 years. And now, every single person I met outside—where they were showing off their product and displaying their product—they're saying it's better now than ever before. They've never had a time like this. And I'm happy to hear it, because that's what I'm here for. You've never had a time like this.

And I'll tell you something, it's going to get better. It's actually going to get better. You might not even be able to envision. We have so much potential in this country. It's actually going to get better. It's good now—really good, I guess, in a lot of ways. It's going to get even better.

So I want to thank you again to everyone for showcasing your amazing products. We love our country, we love our people, and we love our great American flag. God bless you, and God bless America. Keep up the fantastic work. Really good job.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.