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Trump touts cracker plant

President Donald Trump fires up the crowd at the end of his speech to workers building the Royal Dutch Shell cracker plant Tuesday in Potter Township, Beaver County.
President visits workers, tours construction site

POTTER TWP, Beaver County — President Donald Trump on Tuesday sought to rally a crowd of construction workers during a visit to a massive petrochemical plant they are building.

After landing at Pittsburgh International Airport shortly after 1 p.m., Trump arrived at the under-construction Royal Dutch Shell cracker plant in Potter. He began speaking around 2 p.m.

“We're restoring the glory of American manufacturing and reclaiming our noble heritage as a nation of builders again,” Trump said during a speech to workers at the site.

He toured the facility after delivering the speech, during which he denounced union leaders who don't support him politically.

Trump told the crowd at the top of his speech that he did “great” with union workers in 2016, but not so good with union leadership.

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He won Beaver County by 20 points in the 2016 presidential election, and Butler County by 35 points. “I'm going to speak to some of your union leaders to say, 'I hope you're going to support Trump,' ” the president told the crowd. “Because if they're not, vote them the hell out of office because they're not doing their job.”

Tuesday's event was an official visit of the president — not a campaign event or political rally — administration officials noted in a conference call Monday. Trump was joined by Energy Secretary Rick Perry and EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler.

Trump visited the plant to heap praise on the construction project as an example of the economic benefits of natural gas drilling. Once the plant opens in the early 2020s, it will begin processing ethane gas into a basic plastic material to be used in a large number of plastic products.

As the room filled, classic rock and pop songs began blaring on the speaker system. Some workers in bleachers behind the president's lectern started cheering and raising their arms in synchronicity.

Once the president took the stage, members of the crowd cheered Trump's words.

Trump offered praise for the plant and hitched his wagon to it.“It was the Trump administration that made it possible,” Trump said. “No one else.”The plant was announced in 2012.More than three hours before Trump arrived to speak, workers began filling the room in a sea of yellow and orange fluorescent safety vests.Among the hundreds of workers, Jim McCloskey of Butler stood in the back wearing a highlighter yellow vest and a blue University of Pittsburgh baseball hat.McCloskey has spent his professional life working in construction and has worked at the Beaver County site on and off for about eight months. He is a cement mason on the project.“There's a lot of Butler people here,” McCloskey said. “In all the trades.”Tuesday was the first time McCloskey saw a U.S. president, he said.He voted for Trump in 2016, he said, and remains a supporter.<iframe width="100%" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t5eM8TFZSm0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>“I enjoy this,” he said. “You get to see the president, and he's been pretty good for the economy.”Their project is monumental, McCloskey confirmed. It's the largest in which he's been involved. His shifts usually run from 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.McCloskey is one of several thousand construction workers at the site each week. The team includes representatives of 15 labor unions, according to news materials handed out by White House staff members on site. When it's finished in the early 2020s, about 600 permanent employees are slated to start work.Towering over the 386-acre construction site are 137 cranes overlooking the adjacent Ohio River in a chaotic-looking cluster.Trump joked to the crowd that he would like to operate one of their largest cranes after he finished his speech. He rattled off a list of various trades and crafts represented in the crowd of workers to the applause of those gathered.

Workers in the crowd said they began hearing rumors two weeks ago that they would see a visit from the president. The visit was planned for last week, but was canceled in the wake of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.By Tuesday morning, rumors turned to reality. A fleet of charter buses formed a wall around the facility and were used to transport media and workers in through security checks.More than 2,000 people were present at the event.Workers attending were being paid.Shell's U.S. President Gretchen Watkins spoke first and introduced the president.“The president has supported the industry and this project through the modern corporate tax code that he's provided,” Watkins said. “And this plant will be providing jobs and products and prosperity for this region of Pennsylvania for many, many years to come. We couldn't do this without the president's focus also on energy infrastructure.”The plant's construction has faced criticism from environmental advocates worried about adding to the world's plastic pollution problem.Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said Shell “has received the required DEP permits to construct the petrochemical complex.”That includes water, wastewater and air quality permits, Fraley said.Trump spent little time on environmental issues, except to criticize Democrats' green-energy plans, and instead focused on the workers present.Marcie Barlow, communications director for the Community Development Corporation of Butler County, said the biggest effect of the plant's construction so far that “Butler County saw was the increase in use of union personnel for construction at the site.”

President Donald Trump listens to one of several student speakers at the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, Tuesday, August 13.
President Donald Trump waves as he exits the stage Tuesday after speaking to a crowd of construction workers at the site of the Royal Dutch Shell cracker plant being built in Potter Township, Beaver County. At right, Trump listens to one of several student speakers who attended the event. Afterward, Trump toured the massive facility.

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