The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump, battered in D.C., is buoyed at Boeing rally in S.C.
President will spend weekend in Florida at Mar-a-Lago estate.
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — President Donald Trump, seeking to reset his stumbling presidency, hit the road for a photo op and returned to the simple economic message that got him elected, telling aircraft factory workers Friday that “we’re here to celebrate jobs.”
The president toured a sprawling Boeing complex here, right next to the airport, en route to a weekend in Florida that includes a stay at his resort in Mara-Lago and a rally today in Melbourne. Both are the kind of campaign-style events Trump has often turned to for a political and personal jolt in times of turmoil.
“We’re going to fight for every last American job,” said Trump, adding that his “focus” was on jobs.
He spoke after slowly walking in front of a new Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner at a slickly produced event that erased the lines between corporate and political branding.
“God bless Boeing,” Trump said after offering a similar benediction for the nation.
Swerving from the script loaded into the teleprompter, he joked with Boeing’s chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, about continuing negotiations over the cost of building a new fleet of Air Force One jets (the current models are more than three decades old).
“What can look so beautiful at 30? An airplane,” he said, as the audience guffawed.
Trump, fresh off his raucous news conference in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, seemed thrilled to escape the marble political prison of the executive complex — and to break free from a narrative of chaos and infighting that has characterized his presidential debut.
He left Washington after a week of humbling setbacks that included the forced withdrawal of his choice for labor secretary and the dismissal of Michael Flynn, his national security adviser, in the wake of reports that Flynn misled investigators and Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to Washington.
Trump’s appearance at the manufacturing complex, in a state he won by 15 points in November, vividly illustrated the second side of his split-screen presidency. Events included meetings with labor and business leaders intended to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring working-class economic security. It was that pledge that moved skeptical swing-state voters to his cause.
“There’s the palace intrigue story about them not being very well coordinated, that the White House isn’t ready for prime time, that he’s still setting things up,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a frequent Trump critic. “There’s a lot of cracks in the armor. And then you have the whole Flynn situation.
“But you have a very disciplined president when it comes to economic messaging,” said Graham, who was in Washington on Friday with the Senate in session. “How can that be? I just think he’s more comfortable talking about how we are going to make America a better place for jobs than he is at articulating foreign policy.”
Trump could not have chosen a more impressive backdrop to emphasize his commitment to preserving jobs. His advance staff spent about a week prepping for his visit to the facility, a six-story factory hangar with four massive Dreamliners under construction, cowlings peeled back to expose the inner workings of the engines, signs affixed to their bodies to indicate their purchasers — in one case, Aeroméxico.
The visit came two days after Boeing workers in the state rejected an attempt by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers to unionize the production line.
South Carolina is a rightto-work state, with a low level of union participation. Since it began production in South Carolina in 2009, Boeing has hired 7,500 employees spread around several facilities, investing more than $2 billion in land and infrastructure, while spending about $355 million each year on local suppliers and vendors, according to the company. “This is our house, and our house is going to remain union free!” Joan Robinson-Berry, one of plant’s managers, said to the applause of about 2,000 employees and local officials who gathered for the president’s visit.
But Trump also kept up his pressure on Boeing, which he has criticized for what he suggested was an overpriced Air Force One replacement. On Friday, he repeated that “the price is too high” but also noted that “we’re negotiating.” Referring to one of Boeing’s major competitors, he also said: “We love Lockheed. Great partner.”
The president also said more explicitly than before that the Pentagon would consider buying more Boeing F/A-18 fighters in place of some of the Lockheed Martin F-35’s that it had planned to order if Lockheed does not keep lowering the price of the F-35. “If the price doesn’t come down, we would,” he said. Now that Boeing has made it somewhat stealthier, he said, “The F-18’s a great plane.”