Pres. Trump Speaks to N. American Bldg. Trades

Body

Yesterday, President Trump addressed a gathering of the North American Building Trades in Washington DC. 

The full text of his remarks are available on the Whitehouse Website.

Read Remarks

[video:https://youtu.be/s5uYtZfUMKY align:center autoplay:1]

Excerpt of Transcript

***

I’m calling on all Americans -- Democrat, Republican, independent -- to come together and take part in the great rebuilding of our country.  (Applause.)  

That is why, in my address to Congress, I called on lawmakers to pass legislation that produces a $1-trillion investment in the infrastructure of our country.  And we need it. (Applause.)  With your help, we can rebuild our country’s bridges, airports, seaports, and water systems.  We will streamline the process to get approvals quickly, so that long-delayed projects can finally move ahead.  And with lower taxes on America’s middle class and businesses, we will see a new surge of economic growth and development.

All of you have come to the nation’s capital to call members of the House and Senate to action.  You’ve also called your President to action.  When you see them, you can tell Congress that America’s building trades and its President are very much united.  (Applause.)

Together, we are ready to break new ground.  We will build in the spirit of one of the great projects in our nation’s history -- an enduring symbol of American strength.  The Empire State Building was forged in the Great Depression, and provided jobs for more than 3,000 workers.  We’ve all seen the pictures -- rugged workers perched dozens and dozens of stories up in the air.  Workers like these moved almost 60,000 tons of steel, installed 200,000 cubic feet of stone, and laid 10 million bricks to build that American icon.  And they did the job in a record time -- 13 months.  Hard to believe.  Think of that -- the Empire State Building built in 13 months, during the Depression. Nowadays, you couldn’t even get a building permit or approval in that amount of time. 

When the workers had secured the last piece of steel in that amazing and beautiful structure, they marked the moment -- as we still do today -- with what is called a “topping out” ceremony:  1.050 feet above the streets of New York City, they hoisted a beautiful and great American flag.  (Applause.)  

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  The ironworkers!

THE PRESIDENT:  They did a good job.  They did a good -- those ironworkers, you better believe it.  

***