AMERICAN MANUFACTURING, REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE

NUCOR STEEL BERKELEY, HUGER, SOUTH CAROLINA, MAY 2, 2025

2:31 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Wow. This is a hell of a crowd -- a good-looking crowd behind me. Thank you, guys. (Applause.)

Now, the CEO told me you guys run four shifts at this plant. So, after I -- after I talk, do you have to go to go back to work or are you done for the day?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: You got to get back for work? Well, what if I give a seven-hour speech? Do you have to get back to work then? (Laughter.)

You give a politician a microphone, you never know exactly what's going to happen, my friends.

I -- I want to thank all of you for being here. I want to thank Lee Zeldin for the kind introduction. But most importantly, I want to thank Lee Zeldin for doing a hell of a good job at the Environmental Protection Agency, because one thing that we believe -- (applause) -- you know, there was this idea that happened under the last administration that you couldn't have clean air, clean water, a solid environment, but also growing American industry. President Trump rejects that idea, and he put Lee Zeldin as the guy in charge of implementing that agenda.

We can have beautiful skies. We can have clean air. We can have clean water. We can also have good American manufacturing jobs. There's no tension between those two things. Lee Zeldin is the man making it happen. Thank you, Lee. (Applause.)

I want to thank the great lieutenant governor of the state of South Carolina, Evette. LG, where are you? There you are. Thank you for being here.

I want to thank Congresswoman Mace and all the state and -- lawmakers and other elected officials who are joining us here today. (Applause.) You guys have got great public officials in the state of South Carolina. We're proud of them, right? They're doing a hell of a job. (Applause.)

Now, let me just -- one other note of thanks here, because I just got the tour of a lifetime here at Nucor Steel, so I want to thank Leon and everyone here at this incredible facility here, Nucor -- Nucor Steel Berkeley, for hosting us.

For decades, Nucor has been an engine of American industry. The products this company and other steelmakers create form the literal foundation of American society. And I know I speak for many in -- in the administration -- certainly, I speak for the president -- when I say we're grateful for that. We're grateful for the billions of dollars in new capital investments Nucor has announced in just the last few months. And most importantly, we're grateful to the steelworkers at this incredible plant.

Thank you all for doing what you do, for building America, and for making America proud. (Applause.)

Now, I have this great speech prepared, and I'm very excited to give it, but it's also -- it's very windy out here, and you see this teleprompter here. It's waving like a beautiful American flag. And so, we'll see if I have to go off script here. It'll make everybody -- it'll make the communication staff a little bit nervous.

But I -- I got to tell you, you all know the reason why I'm here. Number one, it's to celebrate the great steelworkers behind me, in front of me, but it's also to celebrate a hundred days of the Trump Administration. We hit the hundred-day mark, and what a hundred-day mark it was. (Applause.)

Now, to me, that marker means a lot of things for the state of South Carolina. It means a lot of things for this planet. It means a lot of things for America.

Number one, a hundred days means energy dominance. We have started drill, baby, drilling. It means cheaper gas, and it means America that is self-reliant. (Applause.)

This hundred days marks a new thing in the United States of America, something we didn't have just a few short months ago: secure borders in the United States of America. I know we're all proud about that. (Applause.)

It means safer streets and an American people once again encouraged to feel pride in our great American history and our great American values. But most importantly, a hundred days under Donald Trump's leaderships begin- -- marks the beginning of the industrial renaissance in the United States of America. I believe that a golden age of American manufacturing started a hundred days ago, and we're building it right here at Nucor Steel in South Carolina. (Applause.)

And I want to celebrate everybody here. I want to celebrate the work you do. I want to celebrate the investments this business has made in the United States of America. I want to celebrate the incredible things you build for the United States.

And it's funny, I -- I got a great plant tour here, and I went to a couple of different places. And one of which, they said, “You know, if things start to go wrong, press the red button.” And I looked over at John, and I looked at Seth, who was -- who was giving me the tour, and I said, “Man, I'm going to cost you guys a lot of money, if the vice president comes here and screws up and doesn't press the red button when he's supposed to.”

And you know what the leadership of this facility told me? They said, “You know what? Even if the vice president screws up a little bit and costs us some money, we're going to make so much money from Donald Trump's golden age of American manufacturing that you guys will end up ahead in the bargain.” And I thought, “That's not too bad.” (Laughter and applause.)

Now, a lot of you may know, this is a particular meaningful stop for me as vice president of the United States. I’ve actually never had a tour of a steel mill, even though my grandfather, the man who raised me, worked in the steel industry. He was, for 40 years, a welder at Armco Steel in Middletown, Ohio.

Now he was part of the -- the Appalachian wave of migration, the people who came from West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and East Tennessee to the rapidly growing industrial towns which had factory jobs that promised three things for their workers: generous wages, stable hours, and a good pension.

Now, in the wake of both world wars, millions of Americans travel to towns like Middletown, Ohio, in search of the same, hoping they'd be fortunate enough to score such a role, such a good job. Now, my Papaw, he was not a proud man, but he would beam when he’d talk about his work at the local Armco mill. I remember that, driving around with Papaw, he could name the make and model of every single car made with Armco steel. I remember that as a little boy, how much proud he -- how much pride he had in what he did.

And having met a few workers here at Nucor, I hope you all feel the exact same pride in the steel you produce and in the products that come out of it. When you see bridges you drive over or the foundations of the buildings that our families live and work in, when you see a lawn mower, a water heater, a kitchen appliance in your neighbors’ homes or in your home, I hope every single one of you -- you guys and you guys in front of me -- feel a sense of pride, however small, because these are the products that actually make America work. These are the products that make our citizens lives better. (Applause.)

And I hope you feel not just pride in the work that you do. I hope you feel a little patriotic too, because this is America's national heritage. It's making things. From Alexander Hamilton to Henry Clay, from Ford's autoworkers to the steelworkers here this very afternoon, America has always been a nation that builds.

The Empire State Building, the Hoover Dam, the Saturn V -- every single one of those great accomplishments were impossible without the might of American industry and, yes, the hard work of American steelworkers. (Applause.)

But let's be honest, for a couple decades, though, our leaders forgot about that core part of American national identity. They decided that America would no longer be a manufacturing power. Instead, we'd let the rest of the world make the necessary things that we needed for our homes and for our families. And when a nation decides to deindustrialize, my friends, you know what else it stops using? The intermediate goods central to that manufacturing, the things like steel that you all make right here at Nucor.

So, we stopped making the things that we needed. We stopped making as many cars. We stopped making appliances. We stopped building new homes and buildings, so the cost of housing skyrocketed in our communities. And even this company, Nucor Steel -- you know what the leadership told me just a couple of short minutes ago? That there was a West Virginia facility -- a beautiful, high-tech Nucor manufacturing facility making great American steel and get- -- giving workers good jobs in the process -- that steel facility, that project sat idle for years under the Biden administration's crushing environmental regulations and environmental rules.

So, when our leadership decides that Americans don't want to make anything, you know what we do? We cost great businesses and great corporations like Nucor a lot of money, we cost great workers their wages, and we cost a lot of people their jobs. And that was the policy of the administration that came before us.

But I am proud that we are now 101 days into an administration that wants to invest in you, that wants to build the future with you. And when Americans see a beautiful bridge or a beautiful building, we all ought to look at it and say, “That was made with American hands and built with great American steel,” right? (Applause.)

And that is exactly what the Trump Administration promises to do. Now, I want to say that, recently, we should have learned a very hard lesson about what happens when you ship all of your industries and all of the things you need to countries that don't like you.

Now, I learned that lesson very personally, not with steel, but I remember a few years ago -- I got three little kids, and, as you know, sometimes little kids get sick. And one of my kids had an ear infection. I went into a pharmacy, and I said, “Hey, I've got a prescription here for amoxicillin,” and the pharmacist told me that they didn't have any amoxicillin. A drug, in some ways, invented by the United States of America, we didn't have enough of it for American children. That's what happens when you lose the ability to make your own stuff. You've got parents who can't get the medicine they need for their own children.

And as we learned during the COVID pandemic, remember, you know, the -- this terrible virus comes. A lot of people were falling sick with it, and we need hospital gowns, and we need hospital masks. We need the things that are necessary to operate an American medical facility. And it turned out all of those supplies came from the very country that set the virus loose on the entire world. Remember that.

Those lessons -- the lesson that you can't become dependent on foreign adversary, the lesson that you've got to make your own stuff -- that is the lesson that the Trump Administration has put into place in the first 100 days.

And I'm telling you, I bring this word straight from the president of the United States: We're so proud of every single one of you. We're so proud of what you do. We're proud of the hard work you do. You're -- we're proud of the beautiful products that we make with American steel. And we are never going to allow your job to get shipped off to a country that hates us. We want to protect your jobs, and, most importantly, we want to protect the great work you do right here in South Carolina and all across the United States of America. (Applause.)

Now, you -- you heard -- I'm sure you've heard some criticism of the president's trade policies from people who ought to know better, because, if you listen to the American media or you listen to a lot of politicians in our own country, they seem desperate to forget the very lessons that made Donald J. Trump the 45th and 47th president of the United States of America.

Now, they attack us when we implement trade policies that do a very simple thing: rebalance trade in favor of American workers and American businesses, instead of foreign workers and foreign corporations.

I've talked to people here today who talk about expanding facilities, building new steelmaking facilities because of the trade policies that Donald J. Trump has implemented. And I'll ask all of you, the workers and the corporate leadership assembled here today, a very simple question: Do you want to ship American jobs off to the People's Republic of China?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Do you want to rely on foreign corporations to make the things that you need in your homes and your families need every single day?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: So, why don't we rebuild America's middle class, why don't we rebuild American manufacturing, and why don't we rebuild American industry, just like you're doing right here? And isn't it nice to have an administration that supports you, for a change? (Applause.)

So, you know, you see these media personalities -- they're pulling their hair out. They're saying, “Well, you know, you guys, you're going to make it harder to manufacture in China. Isn't that bad?” No. It's good. That's exactly what we want to do.

They're saying, “You're going to make it harder for people to bring products in from overseas and undercut the wages of American workers.” Exactly. That's exactly what we want to do.

They're saying, “You're going to make it harder for foreign corporations, but you're going to make it easier for American businesses to build great things in America.” And I say, “That's exactly right.” That's not something to be sad about. That's not something to complain about. That is something to be proud of, and thank God we've got an administration that's finally looking out for American businesses and the American workers who employ them, ri- -- ain’t that right? (Applause.)

So, I'm here today -- and I got to tell you, it is just -- it is such a personally amazing thing for a guy who was born in Middletown, Ohio, who was raised by a 40-year welder at a steel mill, to be able to come to this beautiful facility as the vice president of the United States. And I can't help -- (applause). Thank you.

I can't help but pinch myself -- pinch myself that I get to spend the day in beautiful South Carolina with you fine people, pinch myself that I'm the vice president of the United States, and pinch myself, of course, because I know that this country is still the place of great, big American dreams.

But it's only going to stay that country if we fight for it, if we fight for the jobs of the people here at this facility, if we fight to make it easier to build upon it and to build great things in the United States of America.

I got to be honest with you: The American dream was not built by people selling digital advertisements in Silicon Valley. The American people was built by people like you -- the American dream was built by steelmakers and autoworkers and people who work with their hands.

And I think another thing we got to do is we got to send a message, ladies and gentlemen. I think you all know this better than I do, but I learned a little bit today that you all don't just work with your hands, you work with your heads in amazing ways. This is an incredibly high-tech facility. I'm sure you all are amazed at how mi- -- much you can do. You got about a thousand workers here, and they're earning great wages and doing a great job. How much those 1,000 workers can do to build the American dream of the future, it's an amazing thing.

And so, I think we got to send messages to our young people that the most interesting work, the work that's going to challenge your mind but also allow you to work with your hands, is found at American steel mills right here at Nucor Berkeley in South Carolina. (Applause.)

You know, I was sitting down at Seth's terminal. I thought, “This guy is not a steel mill worker. He's operating a spaceship,” because there's like 14 very complicated screens in front of me. And I felt like Homer Simpson. (Laughter.) I had no idea what I was going to do. I was like, “Seth, you got to get back in this chair, or we're going to cause some serious problems.”

But what it made me realize is that technology -- you know, technology, we use this term -- we think about it as the iPhones that we have in our pocket or the screen that we stare at when -- when a lot of our knowledge workers are going to work. But technology is happening right here at a steelmaking fa- -- facility in -- in Nucor, in Berkeley, in South Carolina. That's -- that's technology of the future.

The great technology of the future, I don't think it's going to be people, you know, sitting around staring at their iPhones. The technology of the future is going to be building great things, but doing it in a new way -- doing it with new, incredible facilities, with safer facilities, with people who know, again, how to use their minds but also use their hands. And I think that is the high-tech future.

You know, people criticize -- I get sick sometimes of the press. They say that Donald J. Trump wants to bring back the jobs of the past. And I don't think anything could be further from the truth, because I -- I, again, was raised by a man who worked at a steel mill of the past. But I guarantee if I went to that steel mill today -- it's owned by Cleveland-Cliffs. Sorry, that's a competitor, but they're good company too. We can spread the love around. But I guarantee if I went to that facility today or when I go to this facility here in Berkeley, I don't see the steel mill jobs of the past. I see the steel mill jobs of the future.

I see technology allowing us to do something today that my grandfather, God love him, wasn't doing 40 years ago at Armco Steel in Middletown, Ohio. And I know that's how we're going to win the future. That's how we're going to beat the Chinese. That's how we're going to beat every single competitor that America faces. It's going to be by doing great things like what you're doing here at Nucor Steel.

And never let anybody tell you that this is not high tech. This is the highest-tech industry, maybe, that I've ever seen. And you're building the America of the future, not the America of the past. (Applause.)

So, let me just close by saying, my friends, I -- I think that the great American manufacturing comeback has begun, and the world has started to take notice. In just 100 days, the president has attracted trillions of dollars in commitments for new investment in America, including some from Nucor Steel.

Just yesterday, we saw that business investment in the first quarter of the United States economy -- business investment grew by 22 percent. That was just in -- in a few short months. That's a big number. (Applause.)

And we know with -- with all this additional investment is going to come hundreds of thousands of new high-paying, high-quality jobs. We're going to see new jobs in artificial intelligence, in deepwater oil production, in chip fabrication, in pharmaceutical factories, research labs, supercomputing facilities, and, of course, in great American-made steel.

But the idea is very simple, and the principle is even simpler: that we want to grow up in a country -- we want our children to grow up in a country where the things that they need are made by their ni- -- neighbors and not by foreigners who hate their guts; where the critical components of American industry are built right here in the United States of America, not in some far-flung region of the world that we can't depend on; and where American jobs, for people who are willing to work hard and play by the rules, pay a solid wage, allow you to buy a home and start a family, and where you're proud every single day, just like my grandfather was, of the things that you built with your hands but also with your minds.

I hope that you all are proud, because I am certainly proud to stand here with great American steelworkers. And every single day, from this day forward, that I go out as vice president of the United States -- when I look at those tall skyscrapers or I look at those beautiful bridges -- I'm going to remember this day and remember that you guys are building the future of this country.

I'm proud of you. We're rooting for you. The president of the United States is going to make your life easier every single day.

We had a good start -- a hundred days. But for the next 1,300 days, President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Vance, we're going to be fighting for you, fighting for your jobs, and fighting for the future that you want to build for your families.

God bless you all. Thank you for having me. (Applause.)

END 2:52 P.M. EDT