“Pennsylvania has never done this well. We’ve got steel back, we brought coal back, we brought so many things back, and the state now is doing better than it’s ever done. … Miners are going back to work that never thought they’d see that job again.” — President Trump, in an interview following a campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., May 20, 2019
“Toyota’s coming in with $14 billion, many, many companies are coming in. And they’re coming in, frankly, to Michigan, they’re coming back, they want to be back to Ohio, to Pennsylvania, to North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and what’s the name of this special place? It’s called Wisconsin. So they’ll be investing very shortly.”
— Trump, at a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wis., April 27, 2019
Notice a theme here? In Trump’s telling, several swing states that could decide the 2020 presidential election are seeing a resurgence of blue-collar jobs in the coal-mining, steel and automotive industries.
We’ve fact-checked many of these lines in our database of Trump’s false or misleading claims. But the blue-collar renaissance now appears to be a campaign mainstay, especially when the president touches down in swing states, so we’re taking a closer look at the numbers.
“Miners are going back to work that never thought they’d see that job again. … They’re digging coal again, so I’m really honored by that, and Pennsylvania is one of the big beneficiaries.” (Wilkes-Barre, Pa., May 20)
View the complete June 13 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.