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Trump visits Granite City Thursday, home to reopened U.S. Steel mill (Illinois)
The Chicago Sun Times ^ | July 22, 2018 | Lynn Sweet

Posted on 07/22/2018 8:11:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

President Donald Trump is making his first visit to Illinois since becoming president, making a stop in Granite City on Thursday where he is expected to tout the reopening of a U.S. Steel Corp. mill.

The White House announced Sunday night Trump will swing through Granite City, in southern Illinois near St. Louis and Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday.

The Trump administration has been highlighting U.S. Steel’s Granite City mill as a trade war success story even as the tariffs have sparked concerns in other sectors, with alarms sounded by Illinois farmers whose main crop is soybeans.

The visit will have a potential political impact in the governor’s race. Democrat J.B. Pritzker’s campaign was already asking Sunday night whether Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner will be with Trump in Granite City. Rauner continues to walk a tightrope when it comes to Trump.

Rauner, in Washington last week, met with a deputy trade representative to make the case for the Trump administration to carve out some trade war relief for Illinois farmers.

Democrat J.B. Pritzker campaign manager Anne Caprara said in a Tweet, “And thus will begin my thrice daily question for the next week — will @BruceRauner be appearing with @realDonaldTrump in Illinois?”

Trump’s Illinois visit comes in a week where the White House media messaging is focused on showcasing “Made in America” products, with a representative from Klein Tools, based in suburban Lincolnshire, at the White House on Monday.

Last March, U.S. Steel announced that it will restart two blast furnaces and related steelmaking in its Granite City works in anticipation of increased demand because of the tariffs Trump imposed on foreign steel.

“Our Granite City Works facility and employees, as well as the surrounding community, have suffered too long from the unending waves of unfairly traded steel products that have flooded U.S. markets,” said U. S. Steel President and Chief Executive Officer David Burritt said in a March release.

The company said that release steelmaking shutdown in December, 2015 with the “hot strip mill” closed in January 2016 because of “global excess steel capacity and unfairly traded imports. The pickle line, cold mill and finishing lines at Granite City Works continued to operate in line with customer demand. The hot strip mill was restarted in February 2017 as the company adjusted its hot strip mill operating configuration to meet customer needs.

Rauner was with Vice President Mike Pence at a July 13 event at the Westin O’Hare in Schaumburg where Pence talked about the U.S. Steel reopening in Granite City.

“And U.S. Steel — U.S. Steel just recently announced that it’s hiring 800 workers to reopen its mill in Granite City. That’s real results for the people of Illinois,” Pence said.

Pence also cited Granite City in a July 19 speech in St. Louis. “You know, three years ago, under the last administration, the steel plant across the river in Granite City shut down — you all remember that — after more than a century of operation. But thanks to the President that you supported, and the Congress that has supported him, that steel mill is reopening and it’s rehiring 800 workers going back to work.”


TOPICS: Illinois; Iowa; Missouri; Campaign News; Issues; State and Local
KEYWORDS: 2018election; 2020election; brucerauner; chicago; dubuque; election2018; election2020; granitecity; hiring; illinois; incometaxes; iowa; jobs; manufacturing; mikepence; missouri; steel; stlouis; tariffs; taxcutsandjobsact; taxreform; tcja; trade; trump; ussteel; warfooting

1 posted on 07/22/2018 8:11:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Liberals would rather have 100X the pollution if it is in China or India instead of a clean operation in the US.


2 posted on 07/22/2018 8:17:33 PM PDT by LukeL
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

And moron Leftists wonder why Trump’s approval ratings are so high.


3 posted on 07/22/2018 8:25:48 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I am so glad they are doing this. I hope there are enough experienced steel workers to train the youngsters


4 posted on 07/22/2018 8:32:38 PM PDT by McGavin999 ("The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood."Thomas Jeffersons)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

These will be mostly union jobs, which pay good. Trump will manage to strip trade union workers support from the Democrats with his policies in the mining, manufacturing, and energy producing sectors. Government union workers will still support the Democrats.


5 posted on 07/22/2018 8:39:13 PM PDT by MCF (If my home can't be my Castle, then it will be my Alamo.)
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To: MCF

I belonged to AFSCME for 15 years and I never voted for a Democrat for anything.


6 posted on 07/22/2018 8:44:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: McGavin999

It will be a total re-build from the ground up. Two years ago was Light-years away. Just about anything there before is obsolete and production will be cleaner, less dangerous and more efficient.


7 posted on 07/22/2018 8:49:25 PM PDT by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Great news, indeed!


8 posted on 07/22/2018 9:09:42 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The idiot Rauner is going to go in the face of a Republican Party which supports the President at 88%. Trump would drag his sorry ass over the finish line and if he is too dumb to know this he isn’t smart enough to be governor.


9 posted on 07/22/2018 9:45:57 PM PDT by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If there’s a war we’ll be so thankful for all the defense industries - the real ones -ut that Trump saved... Things like coal and steel... Trump’s in a fight against time... but so far he’s pulling it off.


10 posted on 07/22/2018 9:50:36 PM PDT by GOPJ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-s1_nfs7f4 STOP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-IsingvI_I)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
Tariffs bad, Trump bad, bark bark bark. Heh heh... One would think that the media shills would get tired of ramming their heads into a stone wall. Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

11 posted on 07/22/2018 9:51:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: arrogantsob

Rauner is 100% Illinois Combine; the worst GOPe on the planet.

Trump could invite him, but with the demand that he enforce immigration law.

He won’t do that. He is as corrupt of the rest of Illinois.


12 posted on 07/22/2018 9:57:12 PM PDT by bakeneko
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To: bakeneko

There’s a jail cell waiting for Rauner along with all the other ex-Governors.


13 posted on 07/22/2018 9:58:41 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Eight hundred new jobs providing for 800 households and all Pritzker’s campaign can come up with is a snotty shot at Rauner asking if he’ll show up and let himself be associated with the President’s evil deed? (Even 800 new jobs are tainted, I guess, if Trump had anything to do with them.) I don’t know if Rauner has been invited to attend or is even inclined to attend since he has always run like a scared rabbit at the mention of Donald Trump’s name. He should consider that Trump carried Madison County, where Granite City is located, and until fairly recently that has been a Democrat stronghold. Rauner carried it too, as well as every other county except Cook.


14 posted on 07/22/2018 10:39:03 PM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
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To: McGavin999

“I am so glad they are doing this. I hope there are enough experienced steel workers to train the youngsters”

Yes, and I also hope that U.S. Steel and other steelmakers use this opportunity of resurgence to modernize and technologically advance the US industry, to make it the most modern and innovative in the world.


15 posted on 07/23/2018 3:14:41 AM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: neverevergiveup

This soybeans canard is a red herring. The world soybean market is controlled by Archer Daniels and American farmers will be served.


16 posted on 07/23/2018 4:57:51 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

Sounds like you are informed about this, and I will take your word for it.


17 posted on 07/23/2018 5:59:29 AM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: neverevergiveup

I’m sure they are going to do that, but people will need to be trained for that. They need to start the training now so when the plant is opened they have people to man it.

I’m hoping it will be jobs for the average middle American, not imported engineers from China or India


18 posted on 07/23/2018 7:26:16 AM PDT by McGavin999 ("The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood."Thomas Jeffersons)
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