Free Republic

Korea Zinc announced on Monday a $7.4 billion smelter project in Tennessee that will be backed by the U.S. government and which will lessen our reliance on China for critical minerals used in defense systems, electronics, and so much more that powers our modern world. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took to X to laud the news: The tweet continues: Today, we announced a major investment with Korea Zinc to build a state-of-the-art critical minerals smelter and processing facility in Tennessee that will produce 540,000 tons per year of essential materials right here in America. He continued, listing a range of...

The world's leading manufacturer of advanced chips is TSMC in Taiwan. Back in 2020, President Trump helped convince TSMC to make a major investment in building chips here in the US, specifically in Arizona.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has agreed to build an advanced chip factory in the United States, in a response to the Trump administration’s growing concerns about the security of the global electronics supply chain and its competitive tensions with China.The decision by T.S.M.C., which operates enormous plants in Taiwan to produce chips used in most smartphones and many other devices, was confirmed late Thursday after earlier press...

For nearly a century, America’s military strength has come largely through self-reliance. We not only made the ships, airplanes and tanks, our country supplied the parts and materials for these complex systems. But a lot has changed in recent times.Unfortunately, our military has increasingly relied on sourcing parts globally -- including from possibly unreliable places like China. It’s a disastrous side effect of globalization.For example, while modern jet engines may typically include between 30,000 and 50,000 parts, ensuring they are “China-free” has proven to be incredibly difficult. We’ve already seen deliveries of F-35s delayed over this issue, revealing that supply...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that the company will build seven supercomputers for the Department of Energy with up to 100,000 chips all made in America. Huang said, “The first thing that President Trump asked me is, ‘bring manufacturing back.'” The New York Post reports that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made several significant announcements during the keynote address at the company’s GTC event in Washington, DC, highlighting the company’s ongoing success and its commitment to advancing e AI technology. The event, held for the first time in the US capital, signifies Nvidia’s pursuit of work with the government and contractors...

...as the fourth largest aircraft manufacturing hub...IN THE WORLD. BOOMITY I'll bet y'all didn't see that coming. Neither did anyone else, except for a few visionaries back in 2008. That was when Airbus, as part of European consortium EADS, worked with Northrup Grumman to get in on the new, next-generation Air Force tanker deal, promised to build the bulk of the airframes in the United States, and won the initial contract for the project. Long story short, screaming and kicking by Boeing, years of skullduggery and John McCain machinations went on, and by 2011, EADS and Airbus had lost the...

Robotics has catapulted Beijing into a dominant position in many industries “It’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen,” said Ford’s chief executive about his recent trip to China. After visiting a string of factories, Jim Farley was left astonished by the technical innovations being packed into Chinese cars – from self-driving software to facial recognition. “Their cost and the quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West,” Farley warned… “We are in a global competition with China, [and it’s not just EVs]. And if we lose this, we do not have a future...

President Trump has proven once again why he’s the most effective advocate for American workers in modern American politics. He fully understands the threat China poses, and his administration is doing exactly what needs to be done to ensure American competitiveness.While strengthening our manufacturing, he’s also tackling trade diplomacy with China. Because President Trump knows we need both: to grow our ability to compete with China by manufacturing right here in the U.S. and also to pursue trade diplomacy that actually helps American businesses and consumers.The early signals of this effort are positive.For example, Ford’s $5-billion investment in car manufacturing,...

Aug 13 (Reuters) - Haier-owned GE Appliances said on Wednesday it plans to invest more than $3 billion over five years in its U.S. operations and workforce following the Trump administration's tariff policies aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing. Global firms have been increasing their investments and presence in the United States after President Donald Trump pushed companies across sectors, including Apple and Ford to produce goods within the country and generate jobs. The GE Appliances investment will create 1,000 jobs in five states and is aimed at expanding the company's air conditioning and water heating portfolio, increasing production output and...

U.S. manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month in July and factory employment dropped to the lowest level in five years amid tariffs that have raised prices of imported raw materials. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Friday that its manufacturing PMI dropped to 48.0 last month from 49.0 in June. A PMI reading below 50 indicates contraction in manufacturing, which accounts for 10.2% of the economy. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PMI edging up to 49.5. The weak PMI reading is consistent with economists' expectations for a slowdown in activity in the third quarter as...

Dramatic revelations confirm that the launching of a full-scale military campaign against Iran was made "at the last possible moment" - under growing pressure from intelligence warnings. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir addressed the Security Cabinet on the eve of the attack, presenting the final operational plans. Several cabinet members reportedly heard the details for the first time during that meeting.... Security officials estimate Iran currently possesses around 2,000 ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel’s home front - a figure that could have doubled within a year due to Iran's accelerating production. Another major achievement has been the...

President Trump’s family is launching a smartphone it’s calling the T1 Phone alongside its own mobile service dubbed Trump Mobile. One of the biggest selling points of the device, which will be priced at $499, is that it will be made in America. But the announcement, made by Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr. on Monday, leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Chief among them: How the company plans to manufacture a smartphone in America in the first place. According to Trump Mobile, the T1 Phone will be available in September. But experts are throwing cold water on the idea...

Official White House photos by Emily HigginsWEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania -- Flanked by a sea of steelworkers dressed in their orange safety jackets and hard hats, President Donald Trump was given a hero's welcome at the Mon Valley Irvin Works to mark the signing of the U.S. Steel-Nippon Steel deal, the largest investment in state history. "With the help from patriots like you, we are going to produce our own metal, make our own energy, secure our own future, build our country, control our own destiny, and we are once again going to put Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of America,"...

Middlebury College professor Gary Winslett somehow got the Washington Post (of all places) to print this list of the key ingredients that caused the Midwest to rust and the South to boom. It reads like a greatest hits of HOTLINE themes: Right-to-work laws, cheap energy, affordable housing, low-cost land, fast permitting, low taxes, immigration. That’s a powerful combination, and it has had big effects. In 1992, there was not a single auto plant in Alabama. Today, Alabama is the No. 1 auto-exporting state, producing more than 1 million vehicles a year. That’s brought more than 50,000 jobs and billions of...

Carrier announced on Tuesday that it plans to invest $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing over the next five years, which is expected to create about 4,000 jobs. Carrier, described as a “global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions,” announced the additional investment in a press release, which includes an expansion of “manufacturing, innovation and workforce expansion.” “The investment is expected to create 4,000 highly skilled jobs in R&D, manufacturing and field service,” the press release revealed. David Gitlin, Chairman and CEO of Carrier, said in a statement the investment “marks the next chapter in our commitment to U.S. manufacturing.”...

U.S. drugmaker Merck (MRK.N), said on Tuesday it is investing $1 billion in a new Delaware plant to expand domestic production as it prepares to deal with President Donald Trump's tariffs. The new facility will produce biologic drugs and Keytruda, becoming Merck's first in-house U.S. site to make the blockbuster cancer treatment, the company said. Merck said last week its biggest tariff exposure is through Keytruda and it has enough U.S. inventory for this year. It estimated $200 million in additional costs for the levies implemented to date. The company expects labs at the new facility to be fully operational...

IBM will invest $150 billion in the US, including on facilities for quantum computer production, over the next five years, the latest American technology company to back the Trump administration’s push for local manufacturing. The company’s announcement on Monday follows similar pledges by tech giants such as Nvidia and Apple, both of which have said they would spend about $500 billion each in the country over the next four years. Several analysts see the spending commitments as overtures to President Trump, whose tariffs threaten to roil supply chains and raise costs for the technology industry. IBM, also a significant government...

IBM, one of the nation’s largest technology employers, announced Monday that it plans to invest $150 billion in the United States over the next five years, adding that the company is “focused on American jobs and manufacturing.” IBM revealed in a Monday press release that it “plans to invest $150 billion in America over the next five years to fuel the economy and to accelerate its role as the global leader in computing.” “This includes an investment of more than $30 billion in research and development to advance and continue IBM’s American manufacturing of mainframe and quantum computers,” the company...

Former President Joe Biden’s U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen blasted President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Monday, saying the return of American manufacturing is just a “pipe dream” that may not even be a “desirable goal.” Yellen, who chaired the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018 prior to heading the Treasury from 2021 to 2025, took to CNBC’s Squawk Box to spew her anti-American rhetoric: Things have been just chaotic,” the former secretary said. “The reciprocal tariffs put on and paused … This is really creating an environment in which households and businesses feel paralyzed by the uncertainty about what’s going...

Debt, illegals, outsourcing -- the United States is heading for a catastrophic fall. Trump understands this. Middle-class America is rapidly going the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird. And California, where mansions and homeless people abound, is the template Democrats want to bring to America as a whole. Because it suits their needs. Big money donors and poor people in crisis who think they need ‘compassionate’ Democrats’ help. The ‘American Dream’ was that any normal person who worked hard and saved could have a house and a relatively comfortable — and meaningful — life, expecting to live better...

We knew there would be a market reset and schadenfreude fest (or gross concern trolling) from the liberal media over the initial reaction to President Trump’s tariff policy. The market had a massive sell-off on Friday, trillions have been wiped off the books, and the media and the Democratic Party are trying to make this like the 1929 crash. It’s not. Let me be clear: others have also said this: a market reset was bound to happen. The era of super-spending that Biden ushered in, which created the inflation crisis, is over. This spending spree artificially propped up Wall Street,...