Secretary Acosta: Good morning, I want to welcome
the governors that we have with us here today, my
colleagues on the cabinet, members of congress and guests.
I want to thank all here for their commitment to
work force development, I want to recognize in
particular Ivanka Trump whose deep interests and
personal passion and leadership have brought
energy and ideas to workforce efforts, there
are 6 Million job openings in the United States this
is the highest number of job vacancies on record.
Americans want to hire, American companies want to
hire Americans and Americans want to work.
But there is a skills gap between skills available
and the skills that workers currently have.
Apprenticeship teach the skills needed to find good
jobs and to succeed in those jobs,
apprenticeships combine a paid work component with
an educational component.
Apprentices earn while they learn, largely
reducing or avoiding the burden of student dept.
Throughout his career President Trump witnessed
first hand the success of apprenticeship programs in
the building trades.
Throughout his campaign President Trump committed
firmly to expand job opportunities here in
America, the President knows that apprenticeships
offer participants good jobs and freedom from
excessive loan dept.
And the President knows that apprenticeship
programs work that they are the best way to reduce
the skills gap.
It is my honor and distinct privilege to
introduce the President of The United States,
Donald J Trump.
(applause)
The President: Hello, everybody.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Thank you for all being here.
Before beginning today, I'd like to take a moment
to again send our thoughts and prayers to my friend,
and the friend of most of us in this room, Steve Scalise,
and his great family as he continues his very brave fight.
It's been much more difficult than people even
thought at the time.
It's been -- he's in some trouble, but he's a great
fighter and he's going to be okay, we hope.
I visited Steve and his family at the hospital
last night, and I reassured them that the
entire country is pulling for them, praying for
them, and that we are here for them every single
step of the way.
America's hearts -- and we mean this in the truest
sense -- sends its love.
We got a lot of hearts in this country, great
hearts, and they're all sending their love and
support to the Scalise Family.
And Steve, in his own way, may have brought some
unity to our long-divided country.
We've had a very, very divided country for many years.
And I have a feeling that Steve has made a great
sacrifice, but there could be some unity being
brought to our country.
Let's hope so.
While at the hospital, I also visited with Special
Agent Crystal Griner -- a terrific young woman -- of
the Capitol Police and her family.
Crystal is one of the two Capitol Police officers
who saved so many lives through her heroism, along
with Special Agent David Bailey.
They ran right into the fire.
They ran right into those guns and the bullets, and
they saved a lot of lives.
America salutes both of their courage.
They have great, great courage.
We all salute them.
We also salute the men and women of the Alexandria
Police, Fire and Rescue, and all of the first responders.
The timing and speed and the professionalism
was incredible.
They performed with bravery and with skill.
Finally, our heartfelt prayers go out to Matt
Mika, who was badly wounded in the assault.
To Matt's family: Anything you need, we are here for you.
Hopefully, Matt will be okay.
In these difficult hours, it's more important than
ever to help each other, care for each other, and
remind each other that we are all united by our love
of our great and beautiful country.
We're joined today by Secretary Acosta,
Secretary Ross, and Administrator McMahon as
we prepare to make a historic announcement to
train Americans for the jobs of the future.
We have a lot of companies moving into this country.
You see the unemployment rate is at a very,
very low level.
Job enthusiasm and manufacturing, business
enthusiasm is at record levels -- never been higher.
A lot of good numbers are coming out, including
almost $4 trillion in gain to the stock markets
since the election -- $4 trillion.
We just signed a big deal yesterday for hundreds of
millions of dollars' worth of equipment and military
equipment going to be made in this country, in our
country, for other countries.
We've got it going.
We have to make sure the people are here and
they're going to be well trained.
So I want to thank my daughter Ivanka and
her leadership.
She has worked so hard on this.
She understands how important it is.
We're training people to have great jobs and
high-paying jobs.
And we're here today to celebrate the dignity of
work -- it's really a good term -- dignity of work --
and the greatness of the American worker, which
I've been celebrating for a long time.
Probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for the
American worker.
And the American worker sees what's happening in
Michigan and in Ohio and in a lot of places that
we've had a huge impact on just in a short period of
time that I've been here and this administration
has been involved.
We have a lot of companies moving in, a lot of plants
are going to be built.
A lot of plants are being expanded, and big ones are
going to be announced very soon.
You're going to hear some very big names that I
can't tell you about now.
We want to get them signed on the dotted line.
We don't want to talk too quickly.
It's called "sign them on the dotted line," right?
(Laughter.)
In just a few moments, I'll be signing an
executive order to expand apprenticeships and
vocational training to help all Americans find a
rewarding career, earn a great living, and support
themselves and their families, and love going
to work in the morning.
We will be removing federal restrictions that
have prevented many different industries from
creating apprenticeship programs.
We have regulations on top of regulations.
And in history, nobody has gotten rid of so many
regulations at the Trump administration.
And that's one of the reasons that you see the
jobs and the companies all kicking in so strongly.
I think some very good numbers are going to be
announced, by the way, in the very
near future as to GDP.
So we're empowering these companies, these unions,
industry groups, federal agencies to go out and
create new apprenticeships for millions
of our citizens.
Apprenticeships place students into great jobs
without the crippling debt of traditional four-year
college degrees.
Instead, apprentices earn while they learn -- which
is an expression we're using: Earn while you learn.
We're joined today by apprentices who know
firsthand how these programs can bring new
hope and new opportunities.
We're also joined by some of the country's great
governors, and I appreciate them very, very
much for being here.
We just had a meeting in the Cabinet Room.
Charles Robel is here with us from Wisconsin, where I
just left, actually, yesterday.
I was with Governor Walker.
Charles is a three-time combat veteran who bravely
served our nation -- highly respected.
After Charles came back from the war, he, like so
many other Americans, faced very tough economic times.
Charles began taking machine tool operation
courses from a technical college.
He immediately excelled.
He was really, really good at it, they say.
That's what they say.
I haven't checked.
(Laughter.)
Where is Charles?
Come here.
(Laughter.)
Charles, they tell me.
I haven't checked it.
I want to check you out, all right?
(Laughter.)
But he immediately excelled.
And by the end of his year-long apprenticeship,
Charles will be making more than $60,000 a year
and going up a lot higher than that.
And he loves what he does.
I think you really love it, right?
Yes, loves it.
Charles, we thank you for your service to a country
-- to our country, both in the military and in
exactly what you're doing right now,
which is so important.
And we congratulate you on this exciting new career,
and you're going to have some great future.
Thank you, Charles, appreciate it.
(Applause.)
Each of the apprentices here today has their own
story and their own dreams -- that's what they are -- dreams.
Apprenticeships teach striving Americans the
skills they need to operate incredible machines.
And some of these machines are so intricate, so
powerful, and, really -- the word is --
they are incredible.
This is not the old days; this is new and
computerized and complicated, and you
really have to know what you're doing.
But they create amazing products.
And to construct skyscrapers that
touch the clouds.
-- I mean, you look at the equipment today, and just
go back 10 years ago and 20 years ago, it's from a
different world, from a different planet.
It's incredible.
I just met with the governors from many of the
states to discuss how we can work with them to
expand apprenticeships and the apprentice programs.
I'm also delighted to be here with CEOs of major
companies who support our apprenticeship initiatives.
And we had a tremendous number of the biggest CEOs
in the world here yesterday.
We talked about this also and they are fully behind
it, including our effort to help millions of
talented young American women thrive and
flourish in our economy.
We are thrilled, as well, to have with us today
Congressman Bobby Scott and Congresswoman Virginia
Foxx, who care so deeply about this effort.
(Applause.)
Thank you.
The strength of our nation will be determined by our
ability to keep jobs in America, and we're going
to keep them in America.
You're not going to have companies fleeing
like in the past.
There's going to be a big price to pay for companies
that want to leave, fire their workers, build a
plant outside of this country, and think they're
going to sell their product right back into
the United States.
There's going to be a big price to pay.
But we want to keep jobs in America and we want to
train people and hire American workers
to fill those jobs.
And that's exactly what we're doing, and we're
really doing a job of it.
And I just want to thank all of our secretaries and
everybody involved in the process.
Not only will our apprentices transform
their lives, but they will also transform our lives
in the truest sense.
Today's apprentices will construct the roads and
bridges that move our citizens, they will bend
the metal and steel that shape our cities, and they
will pioneer the new technology that
drives our commerce.
But as we train the next generation of Americans to
do their jobs, all of us here today have to do our
jobs: We have to join forces, join hands, and
join together to restore the American Dream
for all of our people.
And one of the parts of the American Dream is
we're going to come down very, very hard -- and we
already have; you've seen what's going on the border
-- on this massive drug problem that we have in
the United States and, frankly, that other
countries have also.
And we're coming down very, very hard on it.
And if we don't, it's called shame on us.
So everybody that has worked so hard on this
program and everybody in this room, including the
reporters, God bless you --
(laughter)
-- God bless America.
And let's go out and let's do a really terrific job
with the apprentice program.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
(Applause.)
Gather around, this is a big one.
(applause)
Matt says give it to charles.
(applause)
Thank you very much everybody.