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President Trump saves the last tank factory in the Western Hemisphere

In 2012, the Obama Administration sought to close one of America’s premier defense facilities as part of mandated budget sequestration. Congressional Republicans managed to stop them, but the number of employees at the plant still plummeted to just 75.

“Enter President Trump,” writes White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro in The New York Times, “with a far different view of the role of a strong military in both defending our homeland and revitalizing our manufacturing base.”

Visiting the plant in Lima, Ohio, this afternoon, President Trump told its workers what they mean to our country. “It is here in Lima, right here, that American greatness is forged with American hands, with American heart, and with American pride,” the President said. He also announced the addition of 400 new jobs at the manufacturing facility.

America’s resurgence over the past two years is captured neatly by two numbers. The first is economic growth, which just cleared 3 percent for the first time in more than a decade. The second is Gallup polling that reveals 6 in 10 Americans are optimistic that today’s children will live better lives than their parents—up from just 44 percent in 2011.

The American dream is back because President Trump understands what so many experts do not: that restoring American greatness is bigger than any one policy. While Washington spent years tinkering with more regulations and more bureaucracy, towns across our heartland withered. Regaining their trust meant renewing their faith in our shared destiny as citizens, including our economy, our military, and our people.

Today, there are plenty of reasons for that trust. Manufacturing jobs are being created at six times the pace of the previous administration’s final two years. Blue-collar workers are on track to receive almost $2,500 more in annual wages. Our military members have received their largest pay raise in nearly a decade, and more than $700 billion is being invested this year alone to rebuild the strongest military on earth.

“We don’t know what challenges will come, what dangers we must face, or what opportunities we must seize,” President Trump told factory workers in Ohio today. “But we know that America will always be ready because of you.”

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