Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) criticized President Trump’s “Made in America Week” in a statement Thursday, saying the campaign was “hypocrisy” given the president’s record on job creation and manufacturing.
“President Trump has been in office for over six months, and yet he has failed to put forward a single bill to support job creation or domestic manufacturing,” the statement said. “His budget would slash investments in research, education, infrastructure, and other areas that would create jobs and strengthen manufacturing here at home.”{mosads}
This week, the president has highlighted American-made products as part of the White House’s three-week “Made in America” initiative to refocus attention on the president’s policy agenda.
In the statement, Hoyer pointed to a number of statistics targeting the president’s success on manufacturing-related issues in the U.S. during his first six months in office.
Hoyer cited a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that found that weekly earnings in the manufacturing industry have grown by only 0.6 percent during Trump’s time in office, half as fast as the entire private sector.
The whip also noted that Carrier Corp., which Trump previously negotiated with to keep manufacturing jobs at its Indianapolis furnace factory, announced it is laying off 338 people on Thursday, the six-month anniversary of Trump’s presidency.
The statement criticized the president for his clothing and product lines as well as his daughter’s clothing line for having products created by low-wage overseas jobs.
“If President Trump is serious about restoring American manufacturing and supporting the creation of jobs,” Hoyer concluded, “he should work with Democrats to advance our Make It America plan to create the best conditions for American businessmen to innovate, manufacture, and create jobs here in the U.S.”
The statement also followed reports that the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida filed requests with the government on Thursday to hire 70 temporary foreign workers as cooks, housekeepers and servers at the private club.