Donald Trump visited the Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio, today as part of ongoing campaign efforts ahead of the 2020 election. The president delivered a speech for workers at the plant where he called out previous administrations for standing “idly by as other countries engaged in unfair trade practices.”
The speech was then shared via video by the official White House Twitter account in a single tweet followed by three more tweets highlighting specific remarks. Trump then retweeted them to his own page soon after. One of them called out lawmakers and executives who came before him for not having their country’s best interests in mind.
“For too many years, Washington stood idly by as other countries drove American workers out of their jobs. Not under President Donald Trump!” it read.
The president described some of those unfair practices as both large subsidies and the manipulation of currency. He also noted that in the particular case of Whirlpool and its American counterparts, foreign companies would bring mass quantities of cheap goods into the country with the intention of running the local entities out of business.
He also brought up NAFTA, the creation and signing of which was overseen by both George H.W. Bush as well as Bill Clinton, calling it “one of the worst trade deals ever made by any country.”
LIVE: President @realDonaldTrump delivers remarks at Whirlpool Corporation manufacturing plant https://t.co/2vC0EyoqoK
— The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) August 6, 2020
Trump went on to boast about his administration’s use of the Defense Production Act, a 1950 federal law which gives special authority to the executive branch allowing them to manage and oversee certain aspects of the economy and manufacturing industries.
“We’ve used it a lot, more than some companies would like to know. We are engaged in the most rapid industrial mobilization. by far, since World War II. Over the last six months we’ve witnessed one manufacturing miracle after another.”
The president described the transformation of one General Motors factory in Indiana where he said now produces “thousands and thousands” of ventilators each week to supply hospitals battling COVID-19.
According to the Toledo Blade , Trump spent approximately 90 minutes at the Whirlpool facility, located about 75 miles west of Cleveland. It measures a whopping 2.4 million square feet and employs about 3,000 people in an area dependent on manufacturing jobs.
“You’ve been very good to me, but I’ve been very good to you,” he remarked.
Trump continues to remain active on social media following his recent mishap with Facebook, in which the social media giant removed one of his posts based on its violation of their policies on coronavirus misinformation.
