Speaking at a U.S. Steel plant in Pennsylvania on Friday evening, President Donald Trump touted his administration’s economic successes and promoted the “big, beautiful” budget bill, which he claimed would constitute the “largest working-class tax cuts in American history.”
“We’re right now on the verge of passing the largest working-class tax cuts in American history. We got to get that beautiful big bill, beautiful as it is, we got to get it passed the Senate, call your senators” the president told U.S. Steel-workers present for the event.
The government spending bill passed the House after an all-night debate last week in which Republicans squeezed out a victory in a 215-214 vote. It now faces significant opposition from Democrats and some Republicans in the Senate.
Trump mocked Democrats during his steelworkers speech on Friday, saying that by opposing the bill, “Democrats are voting for the largest, highest tax hike in history. I’ve never heard of it before.”
“If it doesn’t get approved, you’re going to have a 68 percent tax increase,” he said. “And the Democrats would rather have you have a tax increase. Think of that, 68 percent. They would rather have that happen than vote for a bill where you get the biggest tax cut. So, there’s something wrong.”
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“Meanwhile, our one, big, beautiful bill will keep income taxes at the current rates and deliver no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our seniors,” he said, adding: “We’re going to make [car loan] interest payments tax-deductible, but only if the car is made in America. And that means made with American steel, and steel from U.S. Steel.”
Following criticism from Elon Musk earlier this week that the big, beautiful bill is counter-productive to the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts, Trump said it also “includes the largest reductions to wasteful spending in a generation or more, slashing more than $1.6 trillion in waste, fraud and abuse.”
The president also touted his administration’s early economic successes, saying, “We’ve accomplished more than most administrations in even four years or even eight years.”
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“Since my election, we’ve created nearly half a million new jobs, including 10,000 manufacturing jobs. And those numbers are going through the roof. We’re going to have close to $11 trillion invested in new investment in the United States, and you can look at other years, there’s never been anything like that,” he said, adding: “It’s going to be all with very little inflation. In fact, it was 2.1% in April, way down.”
Following what he described as “probably the greatest inflation in the history of our country” under former President Joe Biden, Trump said, “We achieved the largest drop in consumer prices and the largest increase in consumer confidence since the pandemic.” He also noted that income “soared” by 0.8 percent.
“I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, we have the hottest country right now in just four months,” he said.
Trump also touted the newly announced U.S. Steel-Nippon deal, which he said constitutes “the largest investment of any kind in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
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Despite the Japanese-based Nippon acquiring U.S. Steel as part of the deal, Trump assured steelworkers it is an “incredible deal for American steelworkers” that “includes vital protections to ensure that all steelworkers will keep their jobs and all facilities in the United States will remain open and thriving.”
“You’re going to have control, you’re going to maintain control … I’m going to be watching over it, and it’s going to be great,” he said.
“There’s never been a $14 billion investment in the history of the steel industry in the United States of America,” Trump said, adding, “Pittsburgh will very soon be respected around the world is the Steel City again. So, I want to congratulate you.”
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