Trump returns to his roots with rousing campaign-style speech on jobs

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Trump: American workers will soon have a level playing field

President Trump addresses workers at Boeing plant in North Charleston, South Carolina

After a week of administration ups and downs, President Donald Trump found his stride on Friday afternoon before a raucous crowd gathered in a hangar of Boeing’s company facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.

“We are here to celebrate American engineering. We are also here to celebrate jobs, jobs,” roared Trump to the thousands of Boeing workers assembled for the rollout of the company’s new 787-10 Dreamliner passenger aircraft.

Just a day after a press conference that rocketed from one issue to another, President Trump sounded more like Candidate Trump, repeatedly hitting on the theme that helped win him the White House: jobs.

"We want products made by our workers in our factories stamped with those four magnificent words — made in the USA," Trump said.

While he mentioned his plans to lower corporate and middle class tax cuts, the crowd responded most positively to pledges to bring jobs back home.

Earlier this week, nearly 74 percent of the Boeing employees voted to reject the International Association of Machinists’ (IAM) attempt to unionize the plant.

The plant will be rolling out the 787-10 Dreamliner, which Boeing says achieves 10 percent better fuel and emissions than competitors and 25 percent better than the airplanes it will replace.

In November, the real estate mogul won 54.9 percent of the vote in South Carolina and all 9 electoral votes.

The cadence and the content of the speech harkened to the daily speeches Trump delivered during the campaign.

“Our goal of the nation must be to rely on products made in the U.S.A,” the president said. “This is our mantra – buy American and hire American."

The president will travel to Melbourne, Florida to rally supporters on Saturday.

“From now on it’s going to be America First. Working together as a unit there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We are going to rebuild this country and ensure that every forgotten community” has a better future, he promised

Following his remarks, Trump then toured the company with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who has been in office for a little more than a month. McMaster was selected to succeed Nikki Haley, who stepped down after she was asked to serve as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Rev. Eric Manning, the pastor at the Emanuel AME Church, the site of the 2015 deadly shooting of nine church members by white supremacist Dylann Roof, also accompanied the president.

In December, Trump called out Boeing and CEO Dennis Mullenberg on Twitter for the high price of Air Force One.

“Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Cancel order!”

Relations have improved since then.

Trump joked with the audience that he planned a “big order” for the F-18 Super Hornet and toyed with the idea of sticking with Boeing on the Air Force One project.

Boeing is a member of the recently-launched “American Made Coalition,” a group of businesses whose goal is to build support for a House Republican tax cut plan.

The plan would slash corporate income tax to 20 percent from 35 percent. The plan would also exclude export revenue from taxable income and impose the 20 percent tax on imports.