Vance Praises U.S. Manufacturers: ‘Working With Our Hands Is America’s Heritage’

Vice President JD Vance praised American manufacturers on Friday, arguing that “making things, building things,” and “working with our hands is America’s heritage.”

The vice president spoke at Vantage Plastics, a manufacturer in Standish, Michigan, where he joked to those gathered that he was happy to be out of the Washington, D.C. bubble and referenced his days growing up in Middletown, Ohio.

“Don’t hold it against me, I’m from that state, [located] just one state south,” he joked. “We know in the industrial Midwest that companies like Vantage make Great Lakes states the powerhouse of American industry and that makes it the powerhouse of world industry.”

“America’s success depends on the success of companies like Vantage Plastics,” he explained. “I don’t mean that in some abstract poetic-sounding sense, but literally, if we do not protect our nation’s manufacturers, we lose a fundamental part of who we are as a people. Making things, building things, working with our hands is America’s heritage, and that heritage is alive and well in this facility.”

He also touted the accomplishments of President Donald Trump’s administration so far, hitting at former President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy and pointing out that the Trump administration created 10,000 manufacturing jobs in its first month alone.

“If you invest in America, in American jobs, in American workers, and in American businesses, you’re going to be rewarded,” he said. “We’re going to cut your taxes. We’re going to slash regulation, and we’re going to reduce the cost of energy to build things right here in this country that all of us love.”

“But if you try to undercut us and build outside of our borders, then President Trump’s administration has got nothing for you,” the vice president added.

Vance also referenced the crowd of protestors outside the event, some of whom were holding signs that read “Traitor Vance” or “go home couch-bum,” according to the Washington Examiner’s Christian Datoc.

“I’m sure all of us saw there are a few protesters outside,” he said. “I can’t be the only person wondering, it’s a little after noon on a Friday. Don’t you all have jobs?”