CLYDE - Marco Ontiveros said he is living the American dream inside the four walls of Clyde's Whirlpool plant.
He said that dream was likely saved thanks to President Donald Trump's decision to uphold 50% tariffs against LG and Samsung that led the company to shift some production to America.
Ontiveros said he is the son of an immigrant and a first generation American who did not have a defined career path when he graduated high school around 17 years ago.
"I was fresh out of high school and didn't know what to do with my life," Ontiveros said. "I found that here at Whirlpool."
A team leader now, Ontiveros oversees the production of more than 20,000 washing machines per day — one every 3.8 seconds — at the Clyde plant.
"And every one them is proudly inscribed with that glorious phrase, 'Made in the USA'," Trump said to rousing applause by the more than 100 people listening inside the Clyde plant Thursday.
Ontiveros said the tariffs Trump authorized gave him stability and show support for his and his more than 3,000 co-worker's jobs.
Although the tariffs may have saved jobs at Whirlpool, a Chicago University study showed showed washing machines and dryer prices rose by 12% due to the tariffs.
Trump toured the Whirlpool plant, Sandusky County's largest employer, on Thursday and then spoke for nearly an hour, promising prosperity and taking aim at the Barack Obama and Joe Biden administration for "retreating" from the tariffs
With washing machines stacked behind the stage as a backdrop, Trump unveiled six new promises he plans to keep if reelected in November's general election against Biden.
In a wide-ranging speech, Trump announced the country will "defeat the China virus," a term he used to describe the novel coronavirus.
He said the country will have a vaccine for the virus "very soon."
After ending the pandemic, Trump said, he will make the country prosperous again, pledging to restore and build new factories and plants.
Trump then said he would turn America into the "premiere" medical manufacturer and pharmacy in the world, saying the "United States must produce essential equipment supplies and pharmaceuticals for ourselves."
"We can't rely on China and other nations across the globe," Trump said.
Trump said he promised to launch millions of new manufacturing jobs, citing his desire the see jobs created in electronics, machine tools, and iron and steel industries.
"And we will never forget your washers," he said to an ovation.
Trump continued, saying he will bring back more jobs using new tariffs and trade deals and said he is preparing to impose aluminum tariffs on Canada.
"Canada was taking advantage of us," Trump said to the crowd. "Canada was very unfair for our jobs and aluminum workers."
The president said he is imposing the tariffs again because Canada failed to live up to the promise of not flooding the country with cheaper prices on Canadian aluminum.
"America must be a manufacturing nation and not led by a bunch of fools," Trump said. "That means protecting our national industrial base."
Finally, Trump promised to always put America first, saying that is his final promise to the American people if elected to a second term.
"We will protect, preserve and defend the American way of life," he said.
Trump called America an "unrivaled superpower in the world" and said the country is respected globally again.
Whirlpool employs more than 3,000 employees at the Clyde plant, and more than 25,000 employees across the company with 15,000 working in the U.S.
Eleanor Reece, senior director of global communications for Whirlpool, said 80% of the products sold in the country by the company are manufactured in the country.
"Our plant in Clyde is one of the world's largest and most advanced home washing machine production facilities," Reece said.
Whirlpool has nine manufacturing facilities in the country, with five of them in Ohio including a dryer plant in Marion.
Production at the Clyde plant, which began operation in 1952, was challenged over the last decade as foreign-made machines from competitors LG and Samsung threatened American-made products due to what a Trump economist called "predatory" dumping.
Those competitors were making machines overseas and then selling the imported washing machines cheaper than American companies could sell them.
Although Trump touted his work in aiding Whirlpool, local and state Democrats pointed out that tariffs saving Whirlpool began under the Obama administration.
The 2018 decision by Trump to uphold 50% tariffs against companies such as Samsung and LG for flooding the American economy with below-market prices was a violation of trade law, according to Trump economic advisor Peter Navarro.
Navarro said Wednesday that Whirlpool is the "poster child" for Trump's trade and tariff policy and called the economy built during Trump's tenure in the White House "beautiful."
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