Trump: ‘Era of Economic Surrender Has Come to an End’

President Donald Trump promised to give American workers “the level playing field you deserve” when he spoke Tuesday at the North American Building Trades Unions (NABTU) legislative conference.

NABTU, which represents organized construction workers across the country, welcomed Trump as a speaker at its conference to highlight the work he’d already done as president and reiterate the promises he made to American workers throughout his presidential campaign. Noting that he has worked alongside the construction trades for decades, the president promised to be the builder the United States needs in order to boost its own economy and regain a healthy competitiveness.

“I’ve spent my life working side by side with American builders. And now, you have a builder as your president,” Trump said. “We are a nation of builders, and it was about time we had a builder in the White House, right? We have a builder.”

Praising the workers for being talented “artisans” as well as merely “builders,” the president acknowledged those present at the conference as representatives of “the backbone of America.”

“With the talent in this room, we can build any city at any time and we can build it better than anyone. But we’re going to do even better than that. Together we are going to rebuild our nation,” Trump said. “And I promise you that America’s labor leaders will always find an open door with Donald Trump. Always.”

After thanking the workers on behalf of the nation, Trump vowed that “it’s time we gave you the level playing field you deserve.”

“Washington and Wall Street have done very, very well for themselves. Now it’s your turn, and you’re going to be also sharing the wealth,” Trump said.

The president touted his still-in-the-works plans to boost infrastructure projects and cut back on job-killing and time-consuming regulations. He insisted there was a proper balance between simultaneously reforming infrastructure, creating jobs and protecting the environment. He also promoted his approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, noting that “it’s looking like that’s going to have about 42,000 jobs involved.”

Reiterating one of his key campaign slogans, Trump emphasized that his administration will adhere to two rules: buy American and hire American.

“And that’s not just a slogan. That’s a promise, believe me,” Trump said.

The president noted that his words and promises had already translated into concrete actions. Proclaiming that one of his earliest accomplishments as president was withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership — one of the “great sell-outs of the American worker” — Trump said the years of being “taken advantage of by other countries” are over.

“We’re going to have a whole different set of values when it comes to representing our country,” Trump said. “The era of economic surrender has come to an end … The era of economic victory for our country has just begun. You will see. No longer will we listen to those failed consultants who’ve made one wrong prediction after another, delivering nothing but soaring trade deficits and a big, fat, shrinking work force.”

“We didn’t just offshore our jobs. We offshored a big, big part of the American dream,” Trump added. “We enriched foreign countries at the expense of our own country, the great United States of America. But those days are over.”

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