MACUNGIE, Pennsylvania — President Donald Trump envisions Pennsylvania shaking off the Rust Belt moniker that insinuates decay. In an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump said he sees it as America’s “Money Belt,” a region rapidly reinventing itself with massive investments in energy and defense contracts in manufacturing, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
“I look around here, and you can still call Pennsylvania part of the Rust Belt, but I think it is really the ‘Money Belt,’” Trump said in the shadow of Mack Trucks’ massive M917A3 Heavy Dump Truck that is made at this Lehigh Valley facility for the War Department.
Trump spoke to the Washington Examiner after a private tour of the facility led by Mack President Stephen Roy. He then spoke to hundreds of employees from a stage constructed on the shop floor while he marveled at the company’s ability to stay in business for over 100 years.
“It is really amazing what they’ve accomplished and what they make here,” the president said.
Trump told the Washington Examiner that he wanted to come to Lehigh Valley to emphasize his commitment to both workers and the manufacturing industry and to touch on the nation’s economic successes.
“And to keep my promise to protect American jobs and the American worker,” he said.
Trump also announced that he will be one of a very elite group of American presidents to visit the U.S. Army War College Barracks at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, joining the ranks of George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, and George W. Bush. Trump told the Washington Examiner that he will visit Carlisle for the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit on July 15.
Trump said the summit, the brainchild of Sen. David McCormick (R-PA), will link the patriotic grit of the working class to the historic outpost and showcase the state as a cornerstone of America’s defense industrial base.
The significance of holding a defense event at the Army War College was not lost on the president.
The institution represents the absolute best of the Army and has long been a beacon of leadership. Nestled on one of the oldest military outposts in the country, its history stretches back to the French and Indian War, long before the founding of the republic.
Trump said it brings America’s story full circle by tying the modern defense industry and the people who build the nation’s military machinery of today to such historic and revered ground.
The conversation drifted to the soul of the country. For Trump, these are “his people.” They are the ones he said he feels most connected to because they were drawn to the movement by a shared love of country and a common sense approach to the economy. It’s a working-class coalition that has rewritten the political map in places such as Pennsylvania.
Mack Trucks has had a presence in the Lehigh Valley for over 120 years. Originally headquartered in New York, it moved to the Allentown area in 1905. Since 2009, its headquarters have been located in North Carolina, but its manufacturing remains anchored in Pennsylvania.
The facility, referred to internally as Lehigh Valley Operations, is a massive 1.7 million-square-foot operation that employs over 3,000 workers who keep the country’s supply chains moving.
Workers such as Dan Miller of Allentown, who was driving a well-worn transport vehicle, discussed a tight-knit community that not only works together but also coaches youth baseball, ushers at local parishes, and has family trees that are deeply intertwined with the company.
The collective workforce rolls out more than 24,000 trucks off the assembly line each year.
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) received a standing ovation when he announced that Mack Defense had received $47 million in federal funding last week to continue building the Army’s Heavy Dump Truck. The freshman Republican is facing Democratic nominee Bob Brooks in the midterm elections. Brooks, the president of the state firefighters association, is backed by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA).
Trump urged the crowd to vote for Mackenzie. He even joked at one point on his trip, “I am not doing this for my health.”
Hours before the event was set to begin, the parking lot of Mack Trucks was already packed with workers and supporters eager to see the president. They came despite rain drenching most of the crowd for hours.
There was an undeniable energy of support at the event, and it marked a stark contrast to the constant reporting by national media that Trump’s base has left him. The only evidence of displeasure came from five drenched protesters located a mile down the road. They held a sign whose colors had bled from the rain, and which earlier read “Worst President.”
The United States has witnessed a boom in domestic factory production. Trump said the hardest challenge facing the country isn’t finding capital — it’s finding the people to fill the jobs. He pointed to his national goal of getting more than 1 million registered apprentices.
“The trades are so important, and we need to encourage them,” Trump said.
That encouragement is apparently working. Manufacturing Drive reported that more and more young workers are looking at skilled trades over white-collar work in their search for stability and solid pay. A survey conducted by Resume Templates earlier this year showed that 6 in 10 members of Generation Z plan to pursue jobs in construction, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, building maintenance, and manufacturing, among other trades.
SALENA ZITO: FOUNDRY FOR THE FUTURE: THE SILICON VALLEY OF APPALACHIA
But in Lehigh Valley, the focus remains on the tangible realities of life and the unmistakable sense of pride that is stamped on the side of a heavy-duty rig that reads, “Made in the USA.”
Some people look at a presidential visit as a piece of theater — a means to measure poll numbers and political points. But to the hundreds of workers who watched the production lines idle on a Tuesday afternoon, it meant something else entirely. They take the message seriously, even if they do not always take the rhetorical flourishes literally.