The moment then-candidate Donald Trump came down that escalator ten years ago to announce his presidential campaign and launch the America First movement, elites and Washington insiders foolishly underestimated him.
But working people all over the country—like my dad, a factory worker from Columbia City, Indiana—understood what those elites didn’t. They knew, for the first time in decades, they had a candidate who was going to genuinely fight for them.
President Trump knew that the American working class had been abandoned, and the issues they care about tossed aside, in favor of pursuing forever wars and globalist trade policy.
While the elites were busy tripping over themselves to dismiss his campaign, President Trump was busy shining a light on the issues that matter to everyday Americans.
Now, with the kickoff of his second-term trade agenda, we’re seeing a similar situation unfold.
Last week, President Trump announced a strategy of reciprocal tariffs to level the playing field for our workers and manufacturers. And like clockwork, many in Washington are attempting to cause chaos, dishonestly criticizing his plan and stoking fear.
President Trump is accomplishing what no one else could. Countries that ripped us off for decades are now coming to the negotiating table. Meanwhile, made-in-America manufacturing is enjoying a generational comeback. And most importantly, we’re standing up to communist China and fighting back against its underhanded economic schemes.
The Trump administration is resetting a system that had been rigged against the American people, transforming our imbalanced trade relationships into mutually beneficial partnerships. President Trump has also made it clear that he’s willing to work with our trading partners if they come to the table in good faith.
Already, we’ve seen a massive shift in the willingness of other nations to negotiate—75 countries have reached out to work out a deal since last week’s announcement.
The president is brilliantly using these tariffs to bring back American manufacturing, reversing policies that put America last, destroyed our industries, and shipped our jobs off.
We’ve lost 6 million manufacturing jobs since 1980 while our population has gone up by 117 million people. President Trump said last week that we’ve also lost more than 90,000 factories since NAFTA was signed.
But we’re reversing course.
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So far, in just 12 weeks under President Trump, new investments in America totaling $6 trillion have been announced. We’re seeing the effects of this across the nation, but particularly in my home state of Indiana.
Just last month, thanks to the president’s America-first trade agenda, we learned that Honda is going to build its new Civic in Greensburg, Indiana. Last week, General Motors announced it would increase truck production just a few miles from my hometown in Fort Wayne. Eli Lilly, based in Indiana, also plans to invest $27 billion in American manufacturing, the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing investment in the history of the United States. Novartis also just announced a $23 billion investment in their American facilities, creating jobs for Hoosiers and helping renew American manufacturing.
This surge of made-in-America manufacturing is reducing our dependence on adversaries—particularly communist China.
The CCP has waged economic warfare against us for decades, but our leaders never held them accountable. Until now.
President Trump understands that communist China poses the greatest threat in the world today to our security and our prosperity.
Beijing steals our technology and our intellectual property. Its aim is to make the U.S. irrelevant in every key industry—steel, aluminum, nuclear power, AI, semiconductors, telecommunications, planes, ships, cars, and many more. It’s making us weak and dependent, while implementing unfair trade practices that harm the U.S. and our industries. It’s past time we fight back.
President Trump was right to place reciprocal tariffs on communist China, sending the message that on his watch, the American people will no longer be cheated by foreign interests.
Despite fearmongering from Washington, President Trump is charging full steam ahead to fight for the American worker.
President Trump is leading us into America’s new golden age—an age of historic prosperity and success—and I’m proud to stand with him.
Jim Banks, a Republican, is a United States Senator for the state of Indiana and is a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.