Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito said she’s “grateful” after President Donald Trump called her to come onstage at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit on Wednesday.
“I have one word to describe it, and that is grateful. I work really hard,” Zito said on the Hugh Hewitt Show Thursday.
Trump name-dropped Zito at the summit.
“I worked with Salena Zito; I don’t know if Salena’s here. Is Salena here? Where’s Salena?” Trump said. “I love Salena. She’s queen of the Rust Belt, but you’re no longer the Rust Belt, you’re really the ‘Money Belt.’”
Trump continued to call out her name, telling her to come onstage. Zito told host Hugh Hewitt that she said, “I’m here,” but that the president couldn’t hear her.
“So he made me come up to the stage, which was like this long walk down a hundred steps,” Zito said.
“I’m certainly not the best in the business — I haven’t been around the longest, although I’m getting there because I’m old, but I really work hard in doing what I do,” Zito said.
She went on to describe her work, saying she “listens to people about their lives,” and she tries to really understand their day-to-day, focusing on the hard-working people in coal mines and steel mills.
“When you’re a reporter, you’re only as good as your last story,” Zito said.
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She said the event itself, held at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, brought together investors focused on robotics, technological innovation, and defense contractors for “reindustrializing” the industry.
“They’re building out and making our military, and taking it to the next level,” Zito said.