In remarks to workers at the Nucor Steel Berkeley in Huger, South Carolina, Vice President JD Vance defended President Trump's trade policies.
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00:00Now, you heard, I'm sure you've heard some criticism of the president's trade policies
00:12from people who ought to know better. Because if you listen to the American media, or you
00:17listen to a lot of politicians in our own country, they seem desperate to forget the
00:23very lessons that made Donald J. Trump the 45th and 47th president of the United States
00:28of America. Now, they attack us when we implement trade policies that do a very simple thing,
00:35rebalance trade in favor of American workers and American businesses, instead of foreign
00:40workers and foreign corporations. I've talked to people here today who talk about expanding
00:46facilities, building new steelmaking facilities because of the trade policies that Donald
00:53J. Trump has implemented. And I'll ask all of you, the workers and the corporate leadership
00:57assembled here today. A very simple question. Do you want to ship American jobs off to the
01:03People's Republic of China?
01:04No.
01:05No.
01:06Do you want to rely on foreign corporations to make the things that you need in your homes
01:11and your families need every single day?
01:13No.
01:14So why don't we rebuild America's middle class? Why don't we rebuild American manufacturing?
01:20And why don't we rebuild American industry, just like you're doing right here? And isn't
01:24it nice to have an administration that supports you for a change?
01:30So, you know, you see these media personalities, they're pulling their hair out. They say, well,
01:39you know, you guys, you're going to make it harder to manufacture in China. Isn't that bad?
01:45No, it's good. That's exactly what we want to do. They're saying, you're going to make
01:49it harder for people to bring products in from overseas and undercut the wages of American
01:55workers. Exactly. That's exactly what we want to do. They're saying, you're going to make
01:59it harder for foreign corporations, but you're going to make it easier for American businesses
02:04to build great things in America. And I say that's exactly right. That's not something
02:08to be sad about. That's not something to complain about. That is something to be proud of.
02:13And thank God we've got an administration that's finally looking out for American businesses
02:17and the American workers who employ them. Ain't that right?
02:26So I'm here today and I got to tell you, it is just, it is such a personally amazing thing
02:33for a guy who was born in Middletown, Ohio, who was raised by a 40 year welder at a steel
02:40mill to be able to come to this beautiful facility as the vice president of the United States.
02:46And I can't help, thank you.
02:53I can't help but pinch myself. Pinch myself that I get to spend the day in beautiful South
02:57Carolina with you fine people. Pinch myself that I'm the vice president of the United
03:01States. And pinch myself, of course, because I know that this country is still a place of
03:09great big American dreams. But it's only going to stay that country if we fight for it. If
03:14we fight for the jobs of the people here at this facility, if we fight to make it easier
03:18to build upon it and to build great things in the United States of America. I got to be
03:23honest with you. The American dream was not built by people selling digital advertisements
03:29in Silicon Valley. The American people was built by people like you. The American dream
03:34was built by steel makers and auto workers and people who worked with their hands. And
03:40I think another thing we got to do is we had to send a message, ladies and gentlemen, I
03:43think you all know this better than I do. But I learned a little bit today that you all don't
03:47just work with your hands, you work with your heads in amazing ways. This is an incredibly high
03:53tech facility. I'm sure you all are amazed at how much you can do. You got about 1000 workers
04:01here and they're earning great wages and doing a great job. How much those 1000 workers can
04:06do to build the American dream of the future. It's an amazing thing. And so I think we got
04:11to send messages to our young people that the most interesting work, the work that's going
04:16to challenge your mind, but also allow you to work with your hands is found at American
04:21steel mills right here at Nucor Berkeley in South Carolina. You know, I was sitting down
04:32at Seth's terminal. I thought this guy is not a steel mill worker. He's operating a spaceship
04:39because there's like 14 very complicated screens in front of me. And I felt like Homer Simpson.
04:46I had no idea what I was going to do. I was like, Seth, you got to get back in the chair or
04:50we're going to call some serious problems. But what it made me realize is that technology,
04:55you know, technology, we use this term, we think about it as the iPhones that we have
04:59in our pocket or the screen that we stare at when a lot of our knowledge workers are going
05:05to work. But technology is happening right here at a steel making facility in Nucor, in Berkeley,
05:14in South Carolina. That's technology of the future. The great technology of the future, I don't
05:20think it's going to be people, you know, sitting around staring at their iPhones, the technology
05:24of the future is going to be building great things, but doing it in a new way, doing it
05:29with new, incredible facilities, with safer facilities, with people who know, again, how
05:36to use their minds, but also use their hands. And I think that is the high tech future. You
05:40know, people criticize, I get sick sometimes in the press, they say that Donald J. Trump wants
05:45to bring back the jobs of the past. And I don't think anything could be further from
05:49the truth. Because I, again, was raised by a man who worked at a steel mill of the past.
05:56But I guarantee if I went to that steel mill today, it's owned by Cleveland Cliffs. Sorry,
06:00that's a competitor. But they're a good company, too. We can spread the love around. But I guarantee
06:05if I went to that facility today, or when I go to this facility here in Berkeley, I don't
06:11see the steel mill jobs of the past. I see the steel mill jobs of the future. I see technology
06:17allowing us to do something today that my grandfather, God love him, wasn't doing 40
06:21years ago at Armco Steel in Middletown, Ohio. And I know that's how we're going to win the
06:26future. That's how we're going to beat the Chinese. That's how we're going to beat every
06:30single competitor that America faces. It's going to be by doing great things like what you're
06:36doing here at New Corps Steel. And never let anybody tell you that this is not high tech.
06:41This is the highest tech industry maybe that I've ever seen. And you're building the America
06:46of the future, not the America of the past.
06:56So let me just close by saying, my friends, I think that the great American manufacturing
07:01comeback has begun. And the world has started to take notice. In just 100 days, the President
07:07has attracted trillions of dollars in commitments for new investment in America, including some
07:13from New Corps Steel. Just yesterday, we saw that business investment in the first quarter
07:19of the United States economy, business investment grew by 22 percent. That was just in a few short
07:27months. That's a big number.
07:33And we know that with all this additional investment is going to come hundreds of thousands of new,
07:39high paying, high quality jobs. We're going to see new jobs in artificial intelligence,
07:44in deep water oil production, in chip fabrication, in pharmaceutical factories, research labs, super
07:51computing facilities, and of course, in great American-made steel. But the idea is very simple,
07:57and the principle is even simpler. That we want to grow up in a country. We want our children to grow
08:04up in a country where the things that they need are made by their neighbors and not by foreigners
08:10who hate their guts. Where the critical components of American industry are built right here in the United
08:16States of America, not in some far-flung region of the world that we can't depend on. And where American
08:22jobs for people who are willing to work hard and play by the rules, pay a solid wage, allow you to buy a home
08:28and start a family, and where you're proud every single day, just like my grandfather was, of the things
08:34that you built with your hands, but also with your hands.