Read Donald Trump’s Remarks at Carrier Plant in Indiana

PENCE: How about another round applause for Greg Hayes, the chairman and CEO of United Technologies? It is great to have him in the Hoosier State.

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To the executives at United Technologies who are with us, executives with Carrier, to the great Carrier team here in Indiana.

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To our honored guests, Governor-elect Eric Holcomb, Indiana Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, my fellow Hoosiers.

It is great to be back home again in Indiana.

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And this is a great day for Indiana. And it’s a great day for working people all across the United States of America.

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You know, the state of Indiana is very proud. We are a proud manufacturing state. We are home to low taxes, sensible regulations, great schools and roads and the best workforce in America.

Since the 1950s, Carrier had been apart of Indiana’s manufacturing success story, and we’ve been proud of it.

As governor, I couldn’t be more pleased and grateful that — thanks to the initiative and the leadership of President-elect Donald Trump that Carrier has decided to stay and grow right here in America.

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We are so grateful. We are so grateful that — thanks to the initiative of our president-elect, that I’ll talk about in a minute — and, frankly, thanks to the confidence of Greg Hayes, United Technologies and Bob McDonough at Carrier — that Carrier has decided to stay in Indiana, invest more than $16 million in this facility alone, and will keep more than 1,000 jobs right here in the heart of the Heartland.

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What a difference a year makes.

You know, the truth be told, job announcements are almost a daily thing here in the state of Indiana. We’re at record employment today. We have more Hoosiers going to work than ever before.

And that’s why, frankly, along with all of you who work in this facility, that that day, February 10th, was a heartbreaking day, when Carrier made the difficult decision to close this facility and move jobs out of our country.

We met with the leaders of the company back in March, and try as we might to make the Indiana case, it was clear that the die was cast. The simple truth was that policies coming out of our nation’s capital were literally driving jobs out of this country.

What was missing was clear to me as your governor. What was missing was leadership and change.

Well, the American people voted for change last month. And even before taking office, our president-elect provided real leadership that made the difference.

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PENCE: You know, President-elect Donald Trump did just what he said he would do. He picked up the phone. I was actually in the room. He picked up the phone. He talked from one American to another. He talked about our plans, our plans to make America more competitive, to reduce taxes, to roll back regulations, to put American jobs and American workers first again. He made the case for America.

And Carrier decided to bet on a brighter future for the American people. And we are grateful from the bottom of our hearts.

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I’m very humbled to be standing before you today. I truly am. My family and I are deeply moved by the opportunities the people of Indiana have given us, and now the American people have given us, to serve.

But I’m especially humbled as the holidays approach to have played some small role in this wonderful news, not only here In Indiana but all across this country. But I think it’s important to give credit where credit is due.

First and foremost, I want to thank — I want to thank Greg Hayes and his team at United Technologies, Bob McDonough and the team at Carrier.

Thank you for renewing your commitment to Indiana and renewing your commitment to the people of the United States of America.

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I also just want to thank the great Carrier team here in Indianapolis and in the state of Indiana.

Your hard work, your resilience, your work ethic even in disappointing times I know for a fact gave this company the confidence to double down on the future of this company and the future of the people of this state. And so I thank you, the Carrier team, for giving them the confidence to do just that.

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But lastly, on behalf of all the people of Indiana, allow me to thank the man we wouldn’t be here without for his efforts, for picking up the phone, for keeping his word, his efforts to bring us to this day of renewed hope and promise, not just here in Indiana but really for — for people that know that the strength of this country comes in our ability to make things and to grow things. It’s a renewed day for manufacturing in America.

You know, I remember when Donald Trump was running for president he said that if he was elected president of the United States, America would start winning again. Well, today America won. And we have Donald Trump to thank.

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And I’ve got a feeling working beside this extraordinary man, this is just the beginning of a lot more good news all across America.

So without any further ado, my fellow Hoosiers, it is my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce to you a man of action, a man of his word, and the president-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump.

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TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I love that red hat. Thank you, everybody.

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I want to thank all of the dignitaries that are with us today. We have a whole host: the mayor, governor-elect, great people. It’s a big victory for the governor-elect. He won very convincingly, so we’re very proud of him.

And, you know, Mike has been such a wise decision for me. When people were saying, “I don’t know. How good is he at decision making?” they’d always say, “Yeah, but he picked Mike Pence. That’s a good decision.” And everybody loves Mike. He’s become something very special.

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I want to thank Greg Hayes of United Technologies, because when I called him he was right there. I wish I could have made the call when they were doing their original decision, but it worked out just as well, other than I would have liked to have had an answer a year and a half ago.

We had a tremendous love affair with the state of Indiana. Because if you remember during the primaries, this was going to be the firewall. This was where they were going to stop Trump, right? And that didn’t work out too well.

TRUMP: And it was a firewall — for me it was a firewall. And we won by 16 points, and the election we just won by 20 points — almost 20 points.

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And that was some victory. That’s pretty — that’s pretty great. And I just love the people, incredible people.

So, I got involved because of the love affair I’ve had. This has been a very special state to us. And I’ll never forget, about a week ago I was watching the nightly news. I won’t say which one, because I don’t want to give them credit, because I don’t like them much, I’ll be honest.

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I don’t like them. Not even a little bit.

But they were doing a story on Carrier, and I say, “Wow, that’s something. I want to see that.”

And they had a gentleman, worker, great guy, handsome guy, he was on, and it was like he didn’t even know they were leaving. He said something to the effect, “No, we’re not leaving, because Donald Trump promised us that we’re not leaving,” and I never thought I made that promise. Not with Carrier. I made it for everybody else. I didn’t make it really for Carrier.

And I said, “What’s he saying?” And he was such a believer, and he was such a great guy. He said, “I’ve been with Donald Trump from the beginning, and he made the statement that Carrier’s not going anywhere, they’re not leaving.”

And I’m saying to myself, “Man.”

And then they played my statement, and I said, “Carrier will never leave.” But that was a euphemism. I was talking about Carrier like all other companies from here on in. Because they made the decision a year and a half ago.

But he believed that that was — and I could understand it. I actually said — I didn’t make it — when they played that, I said, “I did make it, but I didn’t mean it quite that way.”

So now because of him, whoever that guy was — is he in the room, by any chance? That’s your son? Stand up, you did a good job.

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You did a great job, right? That’s fantastic. And I love your shirt.

Oh, wow.

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Put it on, cameras, go ahead. Put it on.

Well, your son is great. And he meant that, didn’t he? He really meant it.

At first I said, “I wonder if he’s being sarcastic, because this ship has sailed.” And then I said — it was 6:30 in the evening, and I said, “Boy, the first thing I’m going to do is go there and — say do I call the head of Carrier,” who’s a great guy, but I’ve always learned I’ve got to call the top, and I heard about Greg Hayes. He’s a great executive.

You know, I don’t know if you know, United Technologies is one of the top 50 companies in the United States, and one of the top companies anywhere in the world. They make many other things other than air conditioners, believe me. Their list of companies is incredible.

So I called Greg Hayes. I heard of him, but I never met him. And he picked up the phone, “Mr. President-elect, sir, how are you?” It’s wonderful to win. You know that. Think if I lost he wouldn’t have returned my call. I don’t know if — where is Greg?

I don’t know, would you — if I lost and called you I don’t think you would have called. I would have tried for you, but I think it would have been tougher, right? What do you think, Greg?

Yes, he’s sort of nodding yes, you’re right.

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But I called Greg and I said, “It’s really important, we have to do something. Because you have a lot of people leaving and you have to understand, we can’t allow this to happen anymore with our country. So many jobs are leaving and going to other countries. Not just Mexico, many, many countries. And China is making so much of our product that we’re closing up a lot of plants.”

And I mean, I wrote down some numbers that are incredible, but the numbers of manufacturing jobs that are lost, especially in the Rust Belt — and the Rust Belt is so incredible. But we’re losing companies, it’s — it’s unbelievable, one after another, just one after another.

So I said, “Greg, you’ve got to help us out here. We got to sit down. We got to do something.” And I said, “Because we just can’t let it happen.”

Anyway, he was incredible. And he said, “I understand.” And I said, “I wish I made this call a year and a half ago, it would have been a lot easier call.”

Only because of your son, OK, believe me? Your son, whoever the hell your son is, these people owe him a lot. And I just went through — he’s out in the factory. I thought they were all going to be in this room. This room’s not big enough.

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TRUMP: Yes, I know. I don’t know who arranged that one. Because I had — we just visited a thousand people in the factory that are going wild, in the plant.

TRUMP: But I will tell you that United Technologies and Carrier stepped it up and now they’re keeping — actually the number’s over 1,100 people, which is so great, which is so great (ph).

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And I see the people. I shook hands with a lot of the people. They’re right behind us working. I guess, what is it, you’re so — you’re making so many air conditioners you didn’t want to even have them come off for a half hour. He’s a ruthless boss. He’s ruthless. But that’s OK.

You know, I did say one thing to the Carrier folks and to the United Technologies folks. I said, the goodwill that you have engendered by doing this, all over the world, frankly, but within our country, you watch how fast you’re going to make it up. Because so many people are going to be buying Carrier air conditioners. You know, we’ve had such help here.

Bobby Knight, nobody in Indiana ever heard of Bobby Knight. How great is Bobby Knight?

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Lou Holtz, Gene Keady, we had such incredible support.

But I’ll never forget, a friend of mine called up and said during the primaries, he said, you know, if you could get Coach Knight. And I said, you know, Coach Knight called me a year ago. This was a year before I decided to run. He said, if you ever run, I’m supporting you.

I said, thanks, Coach, I just don’t know if I’m going to be doing it.

And then, when he said, if you could get Coach Knight — I’ll tell you, I got Coach Knight. How good was Bobby Knight as far as we’re concerned in Indiana? Is that right?

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We got Bobby Knight. Nine hundred wins, two championships, right? Two, or three championships, Olympic gold medal, Pan Am Games. But — and he was unbelievable. He wouldn’t stop. He was just going all over. He was the greatest guy. We came into an arena, Greg, and we had 16,000 people inside, outside. We had I think 10,000 outside. It was…

And I left. This was three weeks before the primary, and I left. I said, how are we going to lose Indiana with this? I didn’t think we were going to lose, and we didn’t. We won big. But so I want to thank all of those folks because it really helped with Indiana, and with a lot of other cases.

So, United Technologies has stepped up. And I have to say this, they did it in such a nice and such a professional way. And they’re going to spend so much money on renovating this plant. And I said, Greg, say that number. You know, he said $16 million. Well, the minimum number is 16. It’s going to be, in my opinion, a lot more than that. He said, well, I’d rather say the lower number. See, I’d rather have him say the higher number, so I won’t say it. OK? It’s just a difference in philosophy. Do you agree? Both are OK, but a difference in philosophy.

But they’re going to spend more than 16. They’re going to spend a lot of money on the plant. And I said to some of the folks, I said, companies are not going to leave the United States any more without consequences. Not going to happen. It’s not going to happen, I’ll tell you right now.

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We’re losing our — we’re losing so much.

So one of the things we’re doing to keep them is we’re going to lowering our business tax from 35 percent, hopefully down to 15 percent, which would take us from the highest-taxed national virtually in the world — this is terrible for business — to one of the lower taxed. Not the lowest yet, but one of the lower taxed.

The other thing we’re doing is regulations. The regulations are — in fact, if I asked Greg and your folks, you would probably say regulations might be worse for you than even the high taxes, which is the biggest surprise of the whole political experience. I thought taxes would be number one. Regulations would be up there some place. Believe me, these great leaders of industry, and even the small business people who are just being crushed, if they have their choice between lower taxes and a major, massive cutting of regulations, they would take the regulations. I don’t know how you feel about that, Greg.

But I just noticed — I wrote down because I heard it — since about six years ago, 260 new federal regulations have passed, 53 of which affect this plant. Fifty-tree new regulations. Massively expensive and probably none of them amount to anything in terms of safety or the things that you’d have regulations for. Six of eight of the air conditioning companies right now are located in Mexico, six of eight. I mean, think of that. And 80 percent of the supply chain for Mexico — 80 percent — is located in Mexico. And we’re not going to have it any more. So, we’re not going to have it any more.

And we like Mexico. We think it’s wonderful. I was there three months ago with the president of Mexico. Terrific guy. But we have to have a fair shake. We’re not getting anything. We have NAFTA, which is a total and complete disaster. It’s a total and complete disaster.

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It’s a one-lane highway into Mexico. Nothing coming our way, everything going their way. And I don’t have to mention who signed it anymore, it’s so nice. I don’t have to mention who backed it anymore, right? We don’t have to mention that anymore, fortunately.

TRUMP: But it’s a one-way street. And it’s going to be changed. It’s going to be changed. We have to bring our jobs back. And when they expand — one of the things that made me so happy is when Greg said that they have over 10,000 jobs that they’re going to be producing in the very near future, and now he’s looking to the United States instead of outside of the United States, where almost all of those jobs would have gone.

So, one of the reasons I wanted to do this particular conference is it’s so great. So many people in the other — that big, big beautiful plant behind us, which will be even more beautiful in about seven months from now. They’re so happy. They’re going to have a great Christmas. That’s most important.

But also, I just want to let all of the other companies know that we’re going to do great things for business. There’s no reason for them to leave anymore because your taxes are going to be at the very, very low end, and your unnecessary regulations are going to be gone.

We need regulations for safety and environment and things. But most of the regulations are nonsense — become a major industry, the writing of regulations. And that these companies aren’t going to be leaving anymore. They’re not going to be taking people’s hearts out. They’re not going to be announcing, like they did at Carrier, that they’re closing up and they’re moving to Mexico — over 1,100 jobs.

And by the way, that number is going to go up very substantially as they expand this area, this plant. So the 1,100 is going to be a minimum number.

So I just want to thank everybody and specifically I just have to thank the people that I met backstage — incredible people — the spirit, the love. People are crying. I mean, they’re all crying. And it’s taken us a little while, but think of this. I don’t think we even announced we were running when this deal was originally announced.

And in the end, what happened is — because that makes it much more difficult. I mean, it’s hard to negotiate when the plant is built. You know what Greg said? Greg said, “But, you know, the plant is almost built, right?” I said, “Greg, I don’t care; it doesn’t make any difference; don’t worry about it.” “What are we going to do with the plant?” “Rent it; sell it; knock it down. I don’t care.”

But we’re going to do — and they’re going to do fine with their plant. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to do with an American company, but we’ll figure that out.

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But where we’re starting is from a much easier place. That’s hard, a year-and-a-half-ago they make an announcement. And, you know, all of that work is done. Which is why I have such respect. I would say great business people, they have flexibility. You know, if you’re hardline, “Well, we’re not going to move.” Flexibility. That’s why they’ve done so well over the years. That’s why it’s a great company because they have flexibility.

But we’re not going to need so much flexibility for other companies because we are going to have a situation where they’re going to know, number one, we’re going to treat them well. And number two, there will be consequences, meaning they will be taxed very heavily at the border if they want to leave, fire all their people, leave, make product in different companies — in different countries, and then think they’re going to sell that product over the border.

Which, by the way, will be a very strong border, a very strong border. Believe me.

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And I think companies — oh, we’re going to build the wall. People are saying: Do you think Trump’s going to build the wall? Trust me, we’re going to build a wall. And by the way, people are going to come through that wall. We’re going to have doors in that wall, but they’re going to come through legally.

And people are going to come through on worker permits to work the fields. We’re going to have people — a lot of people are going to come through. But it’s going to be done through a legal process.

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But one thing that’s not going to come through is drugs — the drugs are going to stop.

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The drugs are going to stop.

So, I just want to thank all of the people at United Technologies, most particularly you, because you are fantastic, Greg. I want to thank, and I want you to tell me how much — how many air conditioning units you sold in the last six months from today, because I want to say I think it’s going to be a number that even will surprise your folks because of the tremendous goodwill that you’ve created.

I want to thank all of the workers at this plant, all of the Carrier workers most importantly.

(APPLAUSE) I want to thank my great, great vice president-elect. Because, I’ll tell you what, one of the really good decisions — but I want to thank Mike. And we’re going to be doing this. And if I have to tell you, you know, doing speeches, I’d say — they say it’s not presidential to call up these massive leaders of business. I think it’s very presidential. And if it’s not presidential, that’s OK. That’s OK. Because I actually like doing it.

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TRUMP: But we’re going to have a lot of great people that can also do it, and do it as well as I do it. But we’re going to have a lot of phone calls made to companies when they say they’re thinking about leaving this country, because they’re not leaving this country. They’re not going to leave this country. And the workers are going to keep their jobs.

And they can leave from state to state, and they can negotiate good deals with the different states, and all of that. But leaving the country is going to be very, very difficult.

So, I want to thank everybody. We love you folks. I want to really, really thank the people of Indiana. We had two massive victories in a very, very short period of time.

And all of the workers have a great, great Christmas and a fantastic New Year. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

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