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Trump's Remarks at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette, WI; June 25, 2020
"When I became your President, we had planes that were 50 years old."
You still do.
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump at Fincantieri Marinette Marine | Marinette, WI
ECONOMY & JOBS
Issued on: June 25, 2020
Fincantieri Marinette Marine
Marinette, Wisconsin
4:07 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it’s a good song, isn’t it though? Lee Greenwood.
And thank you very much. I’m thrilled to be here with you on this incredible summer day in Wisconsin on the edge of the beautiful Lake Michigan — that is beautiful too; I know it well — with the legendary workers of Marinette Marine. And you now have a lot of contracts because of the United States government. You’re going to — you’re going to be so busy. (Applause.) You’re going to be so busy. I know you went through a little bit of a hard time; not anymore. Not anymore. Got you covered for years.
{snip}
Moments ago, I walked the length of the majestic freedom-class combat ship that many of you have been pouring your hearts and souls out for over a year. Soon, that ship will be commissioned into the most powerful fleet in human history. We’re building up the Navy. We’ll have 350 ships. It was actually down to a level which was — World War One — that’s a long time ago, isn’t it? World War One. We’re building it up very rapidly. It’s the United States Navy. It’ll be bigger and stronger than it ever was before. Everywhere it goes, our allies and enemies alike will know the strength and pride that symbolizes that name USS — and there it is — Marinette. Proud of it. It’s great. (Applause.)
{snip}
Not long ago, the future of this historic shipyard was looking — can I use the word “bleak”? Yes, I think we can. It was looking bleak. You were down to 44 people, and it was getting ready to close up. Then a lot of good things came along. Despite your extraordinary service to our country over the generations, this beloved facility — the mainstay of your community, by far — you were going to — to levels of poverty. They actually had levels of poverty that nobody would have believed, with all the talent, because I see that. I understand manufacturing. Remember? “Manufacturing was never going to come back.” Well, it did come back. And it came back big.
But I understand — (applause) — I have an aptitude for manufacturing, and I said it’s got to come back and it will come back. And we were doing great. And we’ll do now even better. We’re going to have a better year next year, I think, than almost any year in our history.
And we were going through the single-greatest year that we’ve ever had, from an employment standpoint, from a stock market standpoint. And your 401(k)s right now — people have 401(k)s; they’re very happy with President Trump right now because they’re almost at the level that they were when the virus came over.
But this is a mainstay of your community, and it was facing proposed and the prospect of a final layoff and a total downsized production. Downsized to almost nothing.
But this past April, Marinette’s fortunes turned around, and they turned around quickly. As part of my administration’s colossal rebuilding of the United States military — we’ve totally rebuilt the military — $2.5 trillion. And some people would say, “Well, that’s out of the budget.” I said, “Let me tell you something: There is no budget when it comes to our military because we don’t have to — we don’t want the wrong people running up the front lawn of the White House, right? (Applause.) If they were, I don’t want to say, “Well, maybe I did a lousy job with the military, but I did a great job on the budget.” No, thank you. No, thank you.
No, we have an incredible — and you know what’s the greatest part about it? The greatest missiles in the world. The greatest rockets. You saw, the other day, one of the rockets go off so successfully. The greatest ships. The greatest ships. These are the greatest of their kind anywhere in the world. The fastest, the most powerful. The greatest of everything. And, you know, the beautiful thing about it, it’s all made in the USA. It’s made by you and your counterparts. (Applause.) It’s made in the USA — the army tanks from Ohio.
{snip}
What we’ve done with your great deal, the USMCA — and Canada no longer takes advantage of us like they did. People don’t realize — “Oh, Canada,” beautiful national anthem, right? “Oh, Canada.” But they were brutal on trade. And now they have to treat us fairly. USMCA. We got rid of the worst trade deal ever made in the history of mankind. Humankind. You know, they’d like me to say nowadays, “Humankind,” right? Humankind. See the ladies? I think they like it the other way just as much. Humankind.
{snip}
People don’t realize the talent that we have. And we started getting away from it. We started not building in the Navy. We haven’t built enough ships. The ships that they were building, they looked terrible. I changed designs. I looked at it. I said, “That’s a terrible-looking ship. Let’s make it beautiful. It’ll cost you the same, and maybe less.” You know, sometimes, you can make it look great for less money. I said, “This is not a good-looking ship. Let’s change the design of it.” And I got people in, and we looked at different designs.
{snip}
Our military was totally depleted. When I became your President, we had planes that were 50 years old. We had a military that was tired. It was very tired from years of fighting endless wars — wars that never stopped. And you see what’s happening on that front. We have the strongest military in the world, by far. And before, we had an old — we had a very tired military. What we had were great people in the military, but they weren’t given the right equipment, so now they are. Two and a half trillion dollars.
{snip}
We’re revitalizing our partnerships around the world and insisting that other nations pay their fair share in NATO. They weren’t paying up, and now many of them are. Some of them still don’t pay like they should. They’re delinquent. You know that word? They’re delinquent. No other President pressed them to pay; I pressed them to pay. And the people at NATO are very happy with me, I will tell you. The Secretary General said, “There’s never been anything like it.”
We took in $140 billion more money from other people — not from us, from other people paying their bills, because for many years, they didn’t pay their bills. We were guarding nations, and they weren’t paying for it. And somehow I said, “That doesn’t work too well” — not for me, and not for you either because you’re smart.
{snip}
Your tradition of excellence has given America two classes of combat ships: the Coast Guard cutters that patrol our maritime borders; a state-of-the-art icebreaker, which is incredible, which we had not an easy time getting approved, I will tell you that. Democrats don’t like approving money for the military for whatever reason. Someday you’ll explain that to me. They don’t like spending money on our military. And several of the Staten Island ferries, and so much more. Doing a lot of work.
{snip}
Oh, you don’t know what I have to go through with these people. (Applause.)
They said to me, “Sir…” — a friend of mine. Very smart. A very successful person. Used to call me “Donald” and now he calls me “sir.” He says, “Mr. President…” I said, “Call me ‘Donald.’” “Yes, but I can’t, Mr. President” — which is okay. He said, “So which is the toughest nation to deal with? Is it China? Is it possibly Russia? Or is it maybe North Korea?” I said, “No, the toughest nation to deal with are the Democrats in the USA.” (Applause.) True. True.
The Democrats in the USA are much tougher to deal with than any of these people that we deal with. They’re far more unreasonable. And actually, they’re a little crazy. (Laughter.)
We take care of our communities. And when the time comes, when history calls, when our flag is threatened, we defend our country like nobody else has ever defended our country or our flag. We defend our flag. (Applause.)
{snip}
So, congratulations to you all. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
Remarks by President Trump at Fincantieri Marinette Marine | Marinette, WI
ECONOMY & JOBS
Issued on: June 25, 2020
Fincantieri Marinette Marine
Marinette, Wisconsin
4:07 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it’s a good song, isn’t it though? Lee Greenwood.
And thank you very much. I’m thrilled to be here with you on this incredible summer day in Wisconsin on the edge of the beautiful Lake Michigan — that is beautiful too; I know it well — with the legendary workers of Marinette Marine. And you now have a lot of contracts because of the United States government. You’re going to — you’re going to be so busy. (Applause.) You’re going to be so busy. I know you went through a little bit of a hard time; not anymore. Not anymore. Got you covered for years.
{snip}
Moments ago, I walked the length of the majestic freedom-class combat ship that many of you have been pouring your hearts and souls out for over a year. Soon, that ship will be commissioned into the most powerful fleet in human history. We’re building up the Navy. We’ll have 350 ships. It was actually down to a level which was — World War One — that’s a long time ago, isn’t it? World War One. We’re building it up very rapidly. It’s the United States Navy. It’ll be bigger and stronger than it ever was before. Everywhere it goes, our allies and enemies alike will know the strength and pride that symbolizes that name USS — and there it is — Marinette. Proud of it. It’s great. (Applause.)
{snip}
Not long ago, the future of this historic shipyard was looking — can I use the word “bleak”? Yes, I think we can. It was looking bleak. You were down to 44 people, and it was getting ready to close up. Then a lot of good things came along. Despite your extraordinary service to our country over the generations, this beloved facility — the mainstay of your community, by far — you were going to — to levels of poverty. They actually had levels of poverty that nobody would have believed, with all the talent, because I see that. I understand manufacturing. Remember? “Manufacturing was never going to come back.” Well, it did come back. And it came back big.
But I understand — (applause) — I have an aptitude for manufacturing, and I said it’s got to come back and it will come back. And we were doing great. And we’ll do now even better. We’re going to have a better year next year, I think, than almost any year in our history.
And we were going through the single-greatest year that we’ve ever had, from an employment standpoint, from a stock market standpoint. And your 401(k)s right now — people have 401(k)s; they’re very happy with President Trump right now because they’re almost at the level that they were when the virus came over.
But this is a mainstay of your community, and it was facing proposed and the prospect of a final layoff and a total downsized production. Downsized to almost nothing.
But this past April, Marinette’s fortunes turned around, and they turned around quickly. As part of my administration’s colossal rebuilding of the United States military — we’ve totally rebuilt the military — $2.5 trillion. And some people would say, “Well, that’s out of the budget.” I said, “Let me tell you something: There is no budget when it comes to our military because we don’t have to — we don’t want the wrong people running up the front lawn of the White House, right? (Applause.) If they were, I don’t want to say, “Well, maybe I did a lousy job with the military, but I did a great job on the budget.” No, thank you. No, thank you.
No, we have an incredible — and you know what’s the greatest part about it? The greatest missiles in the world. The greatest rockets. You saw, the other day, one of the rockets go off so successfully. The greatest ships. The greatest ships. These are the greatest of their kind anywhere in the world. The fastest, the most powerful. The greatest of everything. And, you know, the beautiful thing about it, it’s all made in the USA. It’s made by you and your counterparts. (Applause.) It’s made in the USA — the army tanks from Ohio.
{snip}
What we’ve done with your great deal, the USMCA — and Canada no longer takes advantage of us like they did. People don’t realize — “Oh, Canada,” beautiful national anthem, right? “Oh, Canada.” But they were brutal on trade. And now they have to treat us fairly. USMCA. We got rid of the worst trade deal ever made in the history of mankind. Humankind. You know, they’d like me to say nowadays, “Humankind,” right? Humankind. See the ladies? I think they like it the other way just as much. Humankind.
{snip}
People don’t realize the talent that we have. And we started getting away from it. We started not building in the Navy. We haven’t built enough ships. The ships that they were building, they looked terrible. I changed designs. I looked at it. I said, “That’s a terrible-looking ship. Let’s make it beautiful. It’ll cost you the same, and maybe less.” You know, sometimes, you can make it look great for less money. I said, “This is not a good-looking ship. Let’s change the design of it.” And I got people in, and we looked at different designs.
{snip}
Our military was totally depleted. When I became your President, we had planes that were 50 years old. We had a military that was tired. It was very tired from years of fighting endless wars — wars that never stopped. And you see what’s happening on that front. We have the strongest military in the world, by far. And before, we had an old — we had a very tired military. What we had were great people in the military, but they weren’t given the right equipment, so now they are. Two and a half trillion dollars.
{snip}
We’re revitalizing our partnerships around the world and insisting that other nations pay their fair share in NATO. They weren’t paying up, and now many of them are. Some of them still don’t pay like they should. They’re delinquent. You know that word? They’re delinquent. No other President pressed them to pay; I pressed them to pay. And the people at NATO are very happy with me, I will tell you. The Secretary General said, “There’s never been anything like it.”
We took in $140 billion more money from other people — not from us, from other people paying their bills, because for many years, they didn’t pay their bills. We were guarding nations, and they weren’t paying for it. And somehow I said, “That doesn’t work too well” — not for me, and not for you either because you’re smart.
{snip}
Your tradition of excellence has given America two classes of combat ships: the Coast Guard cutters that patrol our maritime borders; a state-of-the-art icebreaker, which is incredible, which we had not an easy time getting approved, I will tell you that. Democrats don’t like approving money for the military for whatever reason. Someday you’ll explain that to me. They don’t like spending money on our military. And several of the Staten Island ferries, and so much more. Doing a lot of work.
{snip}
Oh, you don’t know what I have to go through with these people. (Applause.)
They said to me, “Sir…” — a friend of mine. Very smart. A very successful person. Used to call me “Donald” and now he calls me “sir.” He says, “Mr. President…” I said, “Call me ‘Donald.’” “Yes, but I can’t, Mr. President” — which is okay. He said, “So which is the toughest nation to deal with? Is it China? Is it possibly Russia? Or is it maybe North Korea?” I said, “No, the toughest nation to deal with are the Democrats in the USA.” (Applause.) True. True.
The Democrats in the USA are much tougher to deal with than any of these people that we deal with. They’re far more unreasonable. And actually, they’re a little crazy. (Laughter.)
We take care of our communities. And when the time comes, when history calls, when our flag is threatened, we defend our country like nobody else has ever defended our country or our flag. We defend our flag. (Applause.)
{snip}
So, congratulations to you all. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
