President Trump is putting American workers first, and it’s paying off big time.
The president showed his deep concern for working men and women when he signed an executive order last week establishing the National Council for the American Worker. The same day the order was signed, Trump got more than 20 major U.S. companies and trade groups to sign the Pledge to America’s Workers. They committed to provide worker training for 3.8 million Americans over the next five years.
“By signing the Pledge to America’s Workers, these great companies … are affirming their commitment to train American workers for American jobs,” Trump said. “Because America’s strength, America’s heart, and America’s soul is found in our people.”
Thanks to the president, our people are back on track. Everyone knows that Americans are neither convinced nor satisfied by fancy words — you’ve got to show them. The success of “America First” economic policies is plain to see across the country, but especially in St. Louis.
Trump’s three-pronged attack of tax cuts, deregulation, and tariffs on foreign competitors is a winning strategy, and it’s a strategy designed with workers, not just Wall Street, in mind.
When the president took office, St. Louis’ unemployment rate was at 4.4 percent. The latest figures from June show St. Louis’ unemployment rate at 3.7 percent, a major improvement. Based on Trump’s tax cuts, a growing list of companies have been able to give their employees hourly wage increases and bonuses.
Consider the fact that St. Louis high school seniors who graduated this summer and entered the workforce walked into an economy stronger than at any point during their entire lives.
In total, more than 52,000 jobs have been added to St. Louis’ economy since Trump moved into the White House. The economy as a whole has added more than 3.4 million jobs since then, including 344,000 manufacturing jobs, thousands of which have been created in St. Louis.
Trump touted this success during his visit to Granite City Works last week, a thriving factory right outside of St. Louis.
At least 800 of new jobs in the St. Louis area are being created at the Granite City Works steel plant after U.S. Steel announced plans to reopen both blast furnaces there. Granite City Works was idled in 2015, but thanks to Trump’s economic policies and the economic revival they have kickstarted, U.S. Steel was able to reopen the plant.
Manufacturing in St. Louis and across the country is being revitalized as a direct result of Trump’s tariffs, which U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt highlighted in a statement released when the company announced the reopening of Granite City Works’ second blast furnace.
Trump’s decisive action breathed new life into America’s steel industry.
Between 2000 and 2016, as the disastrous effects of a number of free trade deals took hold across the heartland, the number of jobs in the steel industry fell from 135,000 to 87,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The decline of middle America was no random occurrence. It was the direct result of the catastrophic economic policies supported by both parties for decades.
Trump’s pro-worker policies are now reversing that decline. The entire primary metal manufacturing subsector has seen an increase of more than 17,000 jobs since Trump took office, after experiencing two years straight of month-to-month declines under former President Barack Obama.
When Trump was sworn into office, he promised that “every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.” He is delivering extraordinarily on this promise.
It’s a new day in America thanks to Trump. The economy is booming and working people finally have the American Dream back. That’s because they finally have a president who cares about them and is actually working to improve their lives. “We gave away our country,” the president said at the at Protecting American Workers Roundtable in June. “But we’re taking it back for our workers. … It’s incredible.”
Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) is the founder of the global investment firm Skybridge Capital and served in the Trump administration as White House communications director.
Correction: This piece previously stated that Granite City is in Missouri. It is just across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
