Remarks at United States Steel Corporation's Granite City Works Manufacturing Facility in Granite City, Illinois

The President. That's a great song, isn't it? Well, thank you all. And I'm thrilled to be here in Granite City with the incredible men and women of U.S. Steel. Great company. [Applause]. Great company. And we love our steelworkers. And our steelworkers are going back to work in record numbers, you notice?

We're here today to celebrate a great victory, a victory for all of you, for this community, and for our entire country. After years of shutdowns and cutbacks, today the blast furnace here in Granite City is blazing bright, workers are back on the job, and we are once again pouring new American steel into the spine of our country.

I want to thank Secretary Ross, who's here with us today, and Secretary Acosta. And they've been fighting for your jobs—for our jobs—for a long time. We're also joined by the three true friends of American steel workers: Representative Mike Bost, Rodney Davis, and John Shimkus. Fellas, thank you very much. Thank you. They fight for you.

I'll tell you what, those three people fight for you all the time. In fact, they fight so much that I sometimes say, "I don't want to take their call today." [Laughter] But they're with you all the way. Very special people, hard-working Congressmen.

I also want to thank the president and CEO of the United States Steel Corporation, David Burritt. David, thank you. And David actually gave me a couple of words when I walked in. And I said: "You know what, David? I'd love you and Doug Matthews and some of the folks that you want to bring, if you want to bring anybody"—come up here, I want to shake your hand. What a job you're doing. U.S. Steel is back. [Applause] U.S. Steel is back. Get up here, David. That's great.

I'd love you to say a few words and explain what's happened over the last 4 or 5 months with steel in the United States. Thanks, David.

U.S. Steel Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer David B. Burritt. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you so much, Mr. President. And also a special thanks to Commerce Secretary Ross for the heavy lifting you've done. And, Congressmen, thank you so very much. And Dr. Navarro as well. So thank you. Give it up for them.

It does indeed feel like a renaissance here for U.S. Steel. You know, the President has been in office, really, only a short time, but a lot has happened for our company because of the President. Thank you, sir.

We have a lot of work to do. This is a company that has—was originally known as the great, iconic corporation back in 1901. We need to bring back that status. We need to make U.S. Steel great again. We are so fortunate to have this type of leadership at this point in time. We're so glad you're back, and I'm so glad you're back working safely.

You know, we can do this. You know, we can have steel that's mined, melted, and made in the U.S.A. In fact, that's exactly what this facility does. It gets the taconite pellets from our mining site in Minnesota. We get coal from Appalachia. We put it all together, and we're able to make this great steel. And you're back because of the policies that are in place, and we need to keep those policies in place. And with a President like this, we just know he will never blink.

The President. Thank you, fellas. Thank you, David. It's been so hard to start the steel business back up. You know, this isn't like a regular business where if you don't have it; it's just fine. You need steel coming from our country. You need aluminum coming for—right here in the U.S.A. And we've got aluminum coming out good. We've got steel coming out beyond good. I think we can say that, David. And we have lots of other things happening. And we'll be talking about them as we go along.

I want to introduce a very special person, a tremendous talent. Of course, I'm a little prejudiced, because she's my daughter, Ivanka. I said, "I'll bring you up, Ivanka." She's done a great job. She loves this country, I can tell you that, folks.

Honey, say a few words. Please.

Assistant to the President Ivanka M. Trump. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. It's great to be here in Illinois. One thing I can tell you is that this President and this administration loves its steelworkers.

This President and this administration is fighting for each and every one of you, and it is an honor to be here. The economy is booming, steel is coming roaring back, and we are so incredibly proud of each and every one of you. And thank you to U.S. Steel for being here and for having us here. And thank you for this President for enabling it to happen. So thank you, Illinois. Thank you, everyone.

The President. Thank you, honey. Yes, we've made a lot of improvement. A lot of things are happening. And together, we really are starting to live by two very important rules: Buy American, and hire American. Right? Of course, in terms of a slogan, the greatest, perhaps ever in the history of politics: "Make America Great Again." That's the best. [Applause] That's the best.

And in a couple of years, we change that slogan—I hate to tell you this—to "Keep America Great." Because that's what's happening. Keep America great. So your hat will be a little bit obsolete, but that's okay. That's okay. Because that's what happening. We've never seen anything like going on right now.

You're going to have very big numbers announced tomorrow. I don't know what they are. But a lot of big predictions. If I would have said it on the campaign trail—GDP numbers will be announced tomorrow, sometime. I don't know what they are, but I think they're going to be terrific.

You know, we took over, it was really low, and it was heading lower. A lot lower. And it was going to be there fast. And great things have happened. So whatever those numbers are, watch for them. Somebody actually predicted today 5.3. I don't think that's going to happen—5.3. If it has a "4" in front of it, we're happy. If it has like a "3," but it's a 3.8, 3.9, 3.7, we're okay. [Laughter]

But these are unthinkable numbers. If I would have used these numbers during the campaign, the fake news back there would have said, "He's exaggerating."

Look at all those cameras. All those cameras. Every stop, I've got all these cameras. This never happened to Obama. [Laughter] This never happened to Bush. This didn't happen. They just follow. They're dying to see us make a little bit of a mistake. They analyze every word. They say, "Did he say that?" [Laughter] "Could it have been?" "Did he say something positive about Russia? I think he loves Russia." [Laughter] It'd be nice to along with Russia, but that's okay.

But these people, they analyze every single word, and they follow us. And you know what? The good news is, we can get the word out. We can get the word out. And the word that I get out is, what's happened to steel in this country—Dave just said—over the last 6 months, even though we've been here for a little more than a year in a half, but we really hit it big over the last 6 months with what we've done. They were dumping steel all over the country. Dumping it like it was garbage. And they were putting all of you people out of work. Now you're making your own steel.

And the United States is taking in billions of dollars. They never say that. And also jobs. And also, we're recreating a giant industry. We need steel. We need steel plants. And to see an old, big monster plant like this reopening, that is an honor. And I look at the faces of you people—I could be one of you. I could be one of you.

Audience member. You're hired! [Laughter]

The President. I like you guys. I like you guys. I tell you. But I could be one of you. It's true. Looking around, all these good-looking people. It could be me. And I'd be happy if I was, because you're opening up plants all over the country. I think U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants and expanding. They're taking areas that they never thought they'd see again in the big, old plants. They have a little corner of a building, and now they're taking half the building and all of this giant building. It's a big difference, David. Thank you very much for doing a great job. You've been a great spokesman.

And I know you're all proud to work at a company where the steel is, in fact, mined and melted and made in America. For more than a century, the workers here at Granite City Mill helped build the most powerful and prosperous nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.

Audience member. [Inaudible]

The President. [Applause] That's right. They poured the sweat from their brows and the love from their souls to support their families. And they love their country. We all love our country. But bad things were happening.

Three years ago, the flood of subsidized imports and the tidal wave of unfair trade targeting our steel industry and, frankly, lots of other industries, it finally caught up with Granite City steel. Hundreds of workers were laid off. Your two beautiful blast furnaces were idled. And the lifeblood of this community was drained.

Over the last two decades, nearly two-thirds of American raw steel companies went out of business. More than one-third of the steel jobs vanished. We need steel mills for national security. Remember that. This isn't just price. This isn't just, "Gee, we could do it for a little bit less." We need it for national security. Our steel towns became ghost towns. More than 70,000 hard-working Americans lost their jobs, their hope, and their way of life. You people know it better than anybody.

Other countries cheated and broke the rules. They subsidized their industries. They targeted our factories, our workers, our countries. They went after our companies. And they stole our intellectual property like it never even belonged to us, like it wasn't our idea in the first place. Our trade deficit ballooned to $817 billion. Think of that. We lost $817 billion a year over the last number of years in trade. In other words, if we didn't trade, we'd save a hell of a lot of money. And our leaders said the only choice was economic surrender. They surrendered.

And by the way, even the politicians in Washington—nobody wanted me to be doing what I'm doing. The country was doing well, but ultimately, it was going to be a very bad thing for our country. So I did it, and I did it when we were the strongest. We're having the best economy we've ever had in the history of our country. And this is the time to—[applause]. Right. This is the time to straighten out the worst trade deals ever made by any country on Earth, ever in history. These deals were made by people—I don't know if they didn't understand or if they didn't care, or if they didn't, frankly, love our country. But we have the worst trade deals ever made in history. But now they're becoming good again.

We're here today because America never surrenders. We don't wave the white flag; we only wave the flag that we love. It's called red, white, and blue. And it's beautiful.

America is fighting back, and we're winning. We're winning. Your two great Congressmen—we talked about winning before—they came up to me, and they said, "You know, we've never seen anything like what's happening in this country." But nobody has, because it's never happened before, what's happening with us right now.

But this is a special industry to me. This is steel. This isn't another—this is steel. And we're watching this one closely. And it's going up, Dave. Only up.

For years, politicians—other than the three politicians with us today—[laughter]—these politicians ran for office pledging to crack down on unfair foreign trade, only to get elected, get into office, and then do absolutely nothing except let our country get ripped off. But I'm not like other politicians. I've never been a politician before. I only started 2½ years ago. And I became President. How am I doing? Okay?

But I keep my promises, and I keep my promises to your industry. And I keep my promises to the workers of this country.

Four months ago, I stood alongside steel workers just like you, and I announced that to defend our national security, we were placing a 10-percent tariff on foreign aluminum and a 25-percent tariff on foreign steel. That very same week, U.S. Steel announced it was restarting production right here in Granite City and bringing back far more than the original estimate of 500 jobs. A lot more than that now. And just last month, U.S. Steel announced the reopening of the second blast furnace, far ahead of schedule, meaning almost 1,000 jobs. And those are good-paying jobs.

Very soon, these amazing workers will once again be pumping out 2.7 million tons of raw American steel every single year. And the number is going to go, Dave, a lot higher than that. I can say it. You probably aren't allowed to do that. But I can say it. Okay? And we know that American steel is the best steel in the world. We don't have to worry about the quality.

I was in the construction business. I know a lot about steel and would order steel. And sometimes, depending on where it came from, it wasn't steel; it was a lot of garbage that looked like steel. We don't have to worry about that.

And we also know that our steel industry is vital to our security and to our prosperity. If you don't have steel, you don't have a country. Together, we're sending a message to our foreign competitors: The days of plundering American jobs and wealth, those days are over. Just like I promised, we are finally putting—first time, in a long time, many decades; many, many decades—we're putting America first. It's all about that. America first.

And by the way, other countries—and I said it last year at the United Nations—other countries, they should put themselves first. Right? They should put themselves first. We're not "America first, and other people—forget about them." I said at the United Nations, we're putting America first. And if you're the leader of another country, you should put your country first. But we'll be able to compete and win against any country. That I know.

I also know that not one person in this room has sat down since I got up and started speaking. And I know that the press will say that he didn't get any standing ovations. [Laughter] That's because they never had to stand. They were already standing. [Applause] It's true. True. They were already standing. So they'll say, "This was not a well-received speech." [Laughter] "He didn't get any standing ovations." No, they stood. What do you do when they stood from the beginning to the end of the speech? [Laughter]

But I want to thank everybody. And thanks to our tariffs, idled factories throughout our Nation are roaring back to life. Republic Steel is bringing back 1,000 jobs in Ohio. The Georgetown mill in South Carolina is finally reopening after 4½ years. Everywhere I go to make a speech, they say, "Sir, it's amazing, the steel mill, which has been closed for 20 years, for 10 years, for 5 years—sir, it's opening." And I always mention it in the speeches. Georgetown is one of those places.

Big River Steel is investing billions of dollars to build a brandnew plant in Texas and to upgrade another one in Arkansas. Nucor is creating 250, but ultimately going to at least 1,000 jobs in the great State of Florida, another State we won, big. Commercial Metals will bring 300 jobs and a new micromill to Oklahoma. Hundreds of aluminum jobs are coming back to Kentucky and to Missouri. Hundreds and hundreds.

Across our land, we are witnessing an incredible resurgence of American prosperity, not just in steel, not just in aluminum. We've added 3.7 million new jobs since the election, that beautiful, beautiful election in November of '16. It was your election. It wasn't my election. That was your election, folks. That was your election. Including more than 370,000 manufacturing jobs alone. Remember they said, "Oh, manufacturing, it's obsolete." I said: "Let's figure this—it's obsolete—how is it obsolete? How do you make things if you don't manufacture?" They said they're obsolete. So we're going to soon be up to a half a million jobs in a very short period of time.

You've heard me say this—I'm very proud of this—African American unemployment has reached its lowest level in history. Hispanic unemployment has reached its lowest level in history. Asian unemployment rate has reached its lowest level in history. And I'm sorry, women, to disappoint you—this is tough, but I did win that women's vote didn't I? Remember? Remember they said, "Why would women vote for Trump?" Well, I don't know. But I got more than she did. That's pretty good.

Listen to this. I'm sorry—I'm so embarrassed to say this, because Hispanic, African American, Asian—best numbers in history. Women unemployment only reached a 65-year low. I'm sorry. [Laughter] I'd like to apologize. I want to apologize to all the women in the audience, please. Sixty-five. But I will tell you, within a short period of time, that 65-year period will be history. It will be, actually, history, in two ways. Manufacturing wages are expected to rise at the fastest rate in more than 18 years. Ninety-five percent of American manufacturers are optimistic about their company's outlook. That's the highest level ever recorded. And this is old-time statistics. They've been around a long time. That's the highest level ever recorded.

And thanks to our tariffs and the booming economy that we have created—not the past administration, where the economy was going to hell—U.S. Steel is now in the early stages, David, of investing over $2 billion in asset revitalization that will invest hundreds of millions of dollars, not just here, but in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Gary, Indiana. That's great. Thank you, David. Thank you, David.

In the midst of this great economic revival, now is the time to finally fix the terrible, one-sided, unfair trade deals and practices that have cost our Nation trillions of dollars and millions of jobs. This is the time to do it. We're strong; we're doing well. We have a military that I've just spent—I just got approved $700 billion to fix our military, which has fallen way behind. Next year, we got approved $716 billion.

We have soon the biggest, strongest military that we've ever had, by far. It will be totally upgraded. Beautiful new ships, beautiful new planes. Beautiful new everything. Because we have the greatest fighting people in the world. They're going to have the greatest equipment in the world. By the way, nobody makes equipment like we do, whether it's missiles or ships or planes. Nobody makes what we make. And foreign countries—[applause]—right? You know that. Foreign countries—you know that. Foreign countries, if they're at least semifriendly—we can't sell it to everybody, unfortunately; we do have a little standard, right? But if they're sort of friendly, we're selling them a hell of a lot of stuff. And that's good for jobs. Remember that.

For decades, the United States was the piggy bank that everybody was robbing. We were the big, dumb piggy bank, and everybody was robbing us blind, the whole world. The United States had racked up $13 trillion in trade deficits since 1994. Think of that: $13 trillion.

Since China's entry into the World Trade Organization—another disaster for us—in 2001, that's when China, it was flatlined for decades and decades, and exactly with the World Trade Organization, they shot up and went through the roof. But right now we're doing a lot better than China, and we're doing a lot better than any country on Earth. We're rated number one in the world for growth and other elements. Number one in the world. Did you ever think you were going to hear that again?

But before—and this is a number that when I'd say it, even on the campaign trail, I used to say, "Oh, the fake news is going to kill me on this," you know, because if they catch you making a little mistake—I'd say, "We've lost 60,000 American factories." Factories, not people. Factories. Sixty-thousand like this. Who would even think we have so many? Is it possible? So I used to think it was a mistake. And then, I, very sheepishly—I said it: 60,000. I went through a speech, and I didn't get corrected. Then again, 60,000. Then, after four or five times, I realized that they agree that we lost 60,000. We lost 60,000 factories.

You know how many jobs that is? Nobody even knows how many jobs. And we lost them because of stupidity. Stupidity. We lost them to other countries. We lost our businesses and our jobs to other countries. They'd fire you, and they'd go to other countries; they'd make the product; they'd sell it into our country, tax-free, no tax, don't worry about it. How stupid were we? I probably got elected largely on that. I probably did. [Applause]. Probably got elected largely on that. Not entirely. A lot of other stupid things we've done too, but that was a factor. Because that's not free trade, that's fool's trade. That's fool's trade. To all of the media critics and lobbyists who don't want us to defend American jobs—you have people that say, "Oh, it's okay when we close a factory here, and we buy steel from some country way far away"—I say to those people that we are not starting a trade war. We've been in a trade war for many years, and we've lost for many years. But over the last year and a half, we are winning. We're back, and we're winning, and we are winning bigger than anyone understands.

We've taken the toughest-ever actions in response to China's very abusive trade practices. And I have to be honest: President Xi is a friend of mine; he's a great man. Great guy. But we've taken very tough action, because we couldn't continue to go on with it.

Last year, they [we; White House correction.] lost $375 billion on trade with China. And that doesn't include the theft of intellectual property. Think of that. $375 billion. It's crazy. Not going to happen anymore. It's not going to happen anymore.

We're putting the world's trade cheaters on notice: No one rips off the United States of America, and nobody takes advantage of our workers or our companies anymore. And this includes protecting our great farmers. Our farmers are incredible.

Agriculture and related industries have lost 1 million jobs in the last 20 years. Now China is going after our soybean farmers in the hopes we will surrender our intellectual property and that they will be able to continue to make $500 billion and $375 billion off the big, fat, sloppy United States. Not happening, folks. And our farmers are patriots. Remember that. Our farmers are patriots. And they're saying the President is doing the right thing. They're saying it. These are incredible patriots.

They interview them on television; they say, "I know it's going to be a little tough for a while, but he's doing the right thing, because everybody knows we've been ripped off for so long, and he's doing the right thing." These are incredible people, and you know we've given them a little help yesterday. We're giving them help. And everybody is going to be back, because we have the greatest farms in the world, we have the greatest equipment in the world. There's nobody compete—nobody can compete with us with agriculture.

And these tactics—so they're not working, because we're not going to give China or any other country a veto on United States national security. We're not going to do it. And we will not let anybody bully our wonderful American farmers. Our fortunes as a nation rise and fall together, and that is why we are going to stick together and win for our farmers and our factory workers, our steelworkers—here we are—all across this Nation.

I'm very proud to report we have reached a breakthrough agreement yesterday with the European Union, commonly referred to as Europe, to begin lowering trade barriers and establishing a trade relationship that is fair and, my favorite word, reciprocal. Reciprocal. The European Union—and they understood this was wrong—but they had barriers. Where they would sell their cars; we couldn't sell cars into them. They would tax us, but we would tax them far less.

By the way—I'll give you one example, because it really works—when we build a car and sell it into China, they charge us a tariff of 25 percent. When they build a car and sell it into the United States, we charge them a tariff of 2½ percent. And by the way, and they don't pay it. So we get 2½ percent, and they get 25 percent. Other than that, it's a very fair deal. Does that sound fair to you? Audience members. No!

The President. Very fair deal. I said, "Where the hell have our people been?" And honestly, I don't think they cared. I just don't think they cared. And it's nasty. Look at the bad press I'm getting. These guys: "Oh, he's putting tariffs on. He's being nasty. He was nasty at NATO." They said I was too nasty to NATO and too nice to Russia. Figure that one out, okay? And yet I'm the one that told NATO and Germany: "Why are you selling—why are you doing this? Why are you buying all of this gas and paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for your energy?" I brought that up. But they said, "He was so nasty."

Well, let me just tell you what happened with NATO. Last year, they paid $44 billion more than they ever paid before. And if you look at NATO, it was going this way—it was going down. Everybody was delinquent. They were—not everybody, but almost everybody. The United States wasn't. By the way, Germany pays 1 percent, and we pay 4.3 percent. You think that's good?

Audience members. No!

The President. And the one thing I know about NATO, for sure: It's better for Europe than it is for us. A lot better for Europe. But think of it. So you had these countries that were paying so little, and that gives them a big economic advantage, because we're protecting them, and they have a very small cost of military. Whereas, we have a massive cost—I just told you, $700 billion—and we're protecting them.

So at the end of that meeting, they agreed that they would be paying up. Hundreds of billions of dollars more money will be spent on NATO. And we're not going up, by the way. We're not going up. We're not going up. Hundreds of billions of dollars.

And the head of NATO, the Secretary General, Stoltenberg—great guy—he's my biggest fan in the whole world. [Laughter] He said, "Without President Trump, these people just weren't paying their bills." And now they're paying their bills, and they're proud to do it. But the press said I treated them badly; I treated them with disrespect. These are kings, queens, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and a dictator or two. [Laughter] They were the ones that actually were able to pay the easiest. [Laughter]

So I did a good job with you for NATO. But you know, they don't talk about that. There were actually stories written about my attitude with NATO, and they didn't say that hundreds of billions of dollars more have been agreed to be paid. And that was the whole purpose, because our country was being taken advantage of. We were paying anywhere from 70 to 90 percent the cost of 29 total countries in NATO. Not anymore. Not anymore.

As part of our agreement—[applause]—by the way, to finish that up, Kim Jong Un, making terrific progress. When I met with President Obama, it sounded like he was ready to go to war with North Korea. It sounded like he was ready to go to war. I said, "Did you ever speak to him?" "No." I said: "Wouldn't it be nice to at least speak? Did you ever speak to him?" "No."

But it sounded to me, respectfully, like he was ready to go to war. Seoul, which is a massive city 30 miles away from the border—forget about nuclear; they have thousands and thousands of cannons—they call them cannons, you know, massive guns—aimed right at Seoul. And now you see what's happening.

Now, who knows, ultimately, what's going to happen? But for 9 months, no nuclear tests, no rockets going up, no missiles going over Japan. We got our three hostages back. [Applause]. We got our three hostages back. And we didn't pay $1.8 billion for the hostages, by the way. We paid nothing. But he was very smart. And we have established, really, a very good relationship.

But at the beginning, the news was saying: "What he's saying is going to cause war. He's being horrible. He's totally unhinged," when I used terms like "Little Rocket Man," other terms. [Laughter]

But honestly, now I have a great relationship, I think—I think—with Chairman Kim. And I think a lot of good things are going to happen. And without that rhetoric and without the sanctions and without all the other things that we've been doing, nothing could have happened. Now, you read where they're dismantling nuclear areas. They've already blown up some nuclear areas. They took down all of the propaganda that was all over North Korea: signs, music, all of this stuff. Taken down. It's gone. We're making a lot of progress.

But if you read the papers, you wouldn't understand that, because you don't get the real view from the fake news media. So it's just very important. That's one of the advantages to speaking to tremendous amounts of—look at all those cameras back there—is that—it's like the Academy Awards. [Laughter] There's no difference. But one of the advantages—I can say it—it's covered live, much of it. And when I say it, they can't do anything about it, because I say it. So at least they hear our point of view.

And it's really our point of view, not my point of view. It's our point of view. And it's a point of view of common sense and strength. It's both. It's common sense, and it's strength. And the stronger we get, the less people are going to be messing with us, because we don't want to use that kind of strength; we don't want to use that kind of power. But the more power we have, the more we're not going to have to use it. It's very simple.

So as part of my agreement with the European Union, they've agreed to purchase, almost immediately, large amounts of American soybeans, because China really tried to hurt the American farmer. China tried to hurt the American farmer, because that way they were going to hurt me. And that way, you would go, in November, and you would vote for people that don't want borders, they don't care about crime, they want to get rid of ICE. Democrats. How about the new one? They want to get rid of ICE.

ICE is tough, and ICE is smart. And they go in, and they knock the hell out of MS-13. These are killers. They use knives because it's more painful than guns. And ICE goes in like it's a day at the office. These are tough people. They've got to be tough people, because MS-13 are these gangs that the worst laws—immigration laws—in history have allowed into our country.

Catch-and-release. How about that one? You catch a criminal, you take his name, and then you release him. He's got to show up to court within 4 or 5 years. [Laughter] In the meantime, they're committing crime in our country. These are the laws we have to work with. And despite that, we're setting records, but we have horrible, horrible immigration laws, and we're going to get them fixed. You've got to vote Republican, folks. You've got to vote Republican.

Vote for these two Congressmen. They know what we're doing. They know what they're doing. They're tough. They're tough, and they're smart.

They're also going to increase purchases—European Union—of American energy and work with us to protect intellectual property, which is being stolen at levels that nobody has ever seen before. I want to personally thank European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for working to forge this historic agreement. He's actually a very tough, very smart, very good man. Of course, if I didn't make a deal with him, I wouldn't be saying that. [Laughter] I'd say he's a terrible person.

In everything we do, in every action we take, my administration is fighting for the loyal, hard-working citizens of our country, men and women like you who make our country great, who make our country run. I'd like to invite some of the incredible workers here at Granite City up on stage to personally share their stories really fast.

Patricia Bertrand has worked here for 18 years. When furnace B restarted last month, Patricia christened it with a bottle of champagne. In other words, she loves this place, I think. Is that right?

U.S. Steel primary operations administrative assistant Patricia Bertrand. I do.

The President. Good. Say something. That's beautiful.

Ms. Bertrand. Thank you. Breaking the champagne bottle on the B furnace last month restart celebration was a very special honor. I was impacted 2 years ago, when the plant was idled. Prior to that, I had worked at Granite City Works for 16 years and was able to provide a comfortable life for me and my family.

Granite City Works is home to me, and driving past the quiet plant was difficult. Many families, including my own, suffered, and local businesses. It is great to see the plant up and running, everyone back to work, and the community thriving.

Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Oh. Wow. Beautiful job.

Ms. Bertrand. Thank you.

The President. What a good job. Patricia, don't ever run against our Congressmen, please, because you're going to win, and we need them. Don't ever run against them. What a great job.

Also joining us is Tony Zadolek, a bricklayer who has worked here for 36 years. Tony, come on up. Tell us a little bit how it feels to be back on your job. Thank you, man.

U.S. Steel bricklayer Tony Zadolek. Man, pinch me. I can't believe this. [Laughter]

I want to thank everybody here for having me up and especially President Trump. Two years ago, like a lot of people in this room, I got a phone call that was a gut-wrenching call, not knowing where the next house payment would come; three boys in college at the time. And in those 2 years, thanks to Mr. Trump and everybody who supported him, we're back here now, things are better, and future is looking fantastic.

Again, thank you for supporting him, and thank you.

The President. Thanks, Tony. Take care. Wow. Thank you, Tony. Beautiful.

Also here is Bobby Ellis. He's a Marine Corps veteran and the second generation of his family to work right here at the Granite City Mill.

Bobby, come on up.

U.S. Steel primary operations area manager Bobby Ellis. Thank you.

The President. Thank you, man. Mr. Ellis. Thank you. How exciting is this? Thank you. You know, I grew up here. My mother, God rest her soul, Nellie Ellis, worked at the machine shop cold mill, 37 years. I joined the Marine Corps; I realized what kind of family that is. You guys, each and every one of you guys and gals, are my family. We love you. "Start up, stay up."

The President. Finally, I'd like to hear from Neil Whitt, a third-generation employee who started here over 40 years ago and climbed the ranks to become a plant manager. And now he's back. How does that feel? Come on up. Thank you, man.

U.S. Steel plant manager Neil Whitt. Thank you very much, sir. On behalf of my work family here at Granite City Works, I thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you.

Mr. Whitt. It truly is a family here. I see the familiar faces of the people I've known for years and every day, as I grew up with most of you, went to school with most of you or your parents. As plant manager, it was difficult laying off people and getting the calls—after the layoff, hearing about the struggles, hearing about their personal lives, hearing about the community, how it was suffering.

However, the plant was able to come back thanks to all the hard work from every one of you and the dedication from every one of you and your support, Mr. President. I look around here today, and I see the smiling faces. We owe that to you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.

The President. Thank you very much, man. Really nice. Incredible. Incredible job. Thank you, all four. Thank you very much.

And those stories are inspiring for everybody in our country, and you have a lot of people listening right now. We want every American to know the dignity of work, the pride of a paycheck, and the satisfaction of a job well done. That's what's happening right here in Granite City.

"Made in America." It's not just a slogan, it's a way of life. I remember, when I was growing up, "Made in the U.S.A" or "Made in"—it was on everything. It was on everything. A country—Czechoslovakia—a long time ago, people used to take single dollar bills, and they used to paint them and paste them onto the windshield of their car because it represented America. That's all coming back now. That's what's happening. "Made in the U.S.A." "Made in America." We're proud of it again.

With your help, we are lifting up workers all across our land. We are lifting up the miners who blast ore from Minnesota's Iron Range, the dock workers in Duluth who load it onto barges a thousand feet long, the crewmembers who navigate down the Great Lakes, through the Michigan Soo Locks, and on to Illinois, the rail workers who haul it right here to beautiful Granite City.

And everyone that touches the barges, their trucks, their trains that carry the work of your hands to destinations all across our country, all across the world, to factories and construction sites, into our stores, our homes, our driveways: We thank you.

We are a nation of builders, makers, and creators. In the furnaces of our factories, we forge American prosperity, power, and prestige. Remember that word: "prestige." Our country is becoming prestigious again. I meet with leaders; they all come to me, and they congratulate me on what we've done. They respect us again. America is back. Our country is back. We see the proud legacy of our steel workers all across this magnificent landscape. In our city skylines, and our bridges and pipelines, from the Empire State Building to that shining monument to America's pioneering spirit, the Gateway Arch, the soul of our Nation lives in our people, the heart of our Nation beats in our citizens, and the destiny of our Nation is found in our two hands.

We all share the same home, we all salute the same great American flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God. I will never stop fighting for you, because I know that you are the ones that are rebuilding our Nation. You are the ones reclaiming our dreams. And yes, you are the ones who are making America great again.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you everybody.