BALTIMORE (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted a $3.7 billion investment by the military technology company Anduril to build components for nuclear-powered submarines at a Baltimore-area shipyard.
It's one of a series of events Trump is holding across the country to showcase investments in factories, as high gasoline prices from the Iran war and persistently elevated inflation have damaged the president’s approval ratings on the economy.
“The workers of Baltimore and the shipyard here at Sparrows Point have been a vital part of the American industrial strength for literally over a hundred years,” Trump said, adding that the work being done “is going to be a big component for our future military.”
The site where he spoke was Sparrows Point, Maryland, which formerly housed a steel mill for Bethlehem Steel that closed in 2012.
The president is trying to rally Republican voters with less than a month before the midterm elections on Nov. 3.
This event, though, was in the solidly blue state of Maryland — and Democratic Gov. Wes Moore didn't attend.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the governor, said Moore was blocked from speaking at the event. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, said Moore had been invited to attend the event — as a guest. Moore, who is seeking reelection, is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
Despite the dustup over the event, Moore joined Trump in praising the project.
Moore in a statement said the project could potentially create “the most jobs in Maryland in history.” The new facility is expected to create 3,100 direct jobs with several thousand more indirect jobs being supported.
“Governor Moore has always said he will work with anyone when it comes to delivering for Marylanders but bow to no one when it comes to standing up for them,” Moussa said.
Before the event, guests, who included several dozen service members, mingled with food and drink inside a hangar-like structure adorned with Anduril banners proclaiming “Who Dares Strike at Liberty,” “Command the Sea Command the World” and “The Shipyard is the Weapon.”
Behind the stage where Trump spoke, a backsplash touted “Rebuild the Arsenal.”
Several members of the the Baltimore Ravens, including Marlon Humphrey, a star cornerback, were among those invited. The president plans to attend Saturday's big college football matchup between Alabama and Georgia, after attending Texas at Tennessee late last month.
“Whoa ho ho," Trump proclaimed of the players. "All these guys are making a lot of money.”
The president also said he wasn't necessarily personally cut out to go aboard submarines, offering, “Me, I'd rather be floating on seas.”
The $3.7 billion covers “the cost of standing up the facility, building the workforce, filling it with modern technology and other capabilities required to do the work that we will be tasked with,” Chris Brose, Anduril’s president and chief strategy officer, said on a conference call with reporters organized by the White House.
Administration officials on the call said he government would commit $2.9 billion to the project by purchasing what the factory in Baltimore County, Maryland, produces. The Trump administration is trying to revive America’s shipbuilding capabilities for national security and economic reasons.
Trump said the deal will allow U.S. taxpayers to take a 40% stake in the shipyard and will ensure that “the historic grounds of Sparrows Point will never fall silent again.”
Brose said Anduril would take advantage of “manufacturing revolutions” in the aerospace and other sectors, along with software, to change how factory production would occur.
The U.S. has 26 Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines and expects to add two more to its fleet in the spring, according to an official on the call. That official spoke anonymously as a condition set by the White House.
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Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
