PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Donald Trump, whose campaign has focused on the decline of American manufacturing, will give a policy speech on Tuesday at an industrial plant in Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt region.
Trump is set to deliver the remarks, billed by the campaign as “Declaring American Economic Independence,” at Alumisource, a raw material producer for the aluminum and steel industries in Monessen, Pennsylvania, an hour south of Pittsburgh.
Ticking off local statistics on job losses, Trump has frequently lamented the economic slowdown working-class communities in America have faced as a result of a drop in American manufacturing, particularly in the last decade.
Trump’s speech also comes as one of his most controversial policies, banning all foreign Muslims from the U.S., has come under increased scrutiny following remarks he made after the Orlando nightclub shooting which killed 49 people. Tuesday’s remarks also come the same day as the House Select Committee on Benghazi drops its report on the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which Republicans have used to attack presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s leadership as secretary of state.
Early on in his yearlong campaign, Trump singled out specific American companies — notably Ford and Nabisco — for plans to move some of their manufacturing plants abroad.
Slamming Nabisco for building a factory in Mexico, Trump has vowed he’s “not eating Oreos anymore.”
But Trump’s opponents have slammed what they see as hypocrisy, pointing out that the billionaire has manufactured many of his own products, like his Trump-branded clothing items that are made in China and Mexico.
“Interestingly, Trump’s own products are made in a lot of countries that aren’t named America,” Clinton said in a speech last week. “I’d love for him to explain how all of that fits with his talk about ‘America First.'”
In a speech he delivered last week attacking Clinton, Trump seemed to offer a preview of the arguments he could make in his speech Tuesday.
Again raising his “America First” theme, Trump argued that the U.S. is in decline “because we switched from a policy of Americanism … to a policy of globalism.”
“This is a wave of globalism that wipes out our middle class and our jobs along with it,” Trump said.
