President Donald Trump visited Hot Strip Mill on Thursday, a re-opened U.S. Steel plant in Granite City, Illinois.

“To see an old big monster plant like this opening, that is an honor,” Trump said.

The president noted that the entire steel industry was on the rise again after he enacted new tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.

“They were dumping steel all over the country, dumping it like garbage, and they were putting you people out of work,” Trump told the workers at the factory, referring to subsidized cheap steel imports from countries like China.

Trump criticized the policies of past administrations that resulted in the shuttering of American steel plants and turning “steel towns into ghost towns.”

“We need steel mills for national security, remember that,” he said.

Trump said that the politicians and lobbyists in Washington, DC, did not want him to tackle unfair trade practices, but that it was a good time to do so with a strong economy.

“How stupid were we?” he said, referring to the practice of outsourcing American jobs to foreign countries. “I probably got elected largely on that.”

Several factory employees took the podium to thank Trump for restoring the American steel industry in their community.

“I look around here today, and I see the smiling faces, we owe that to you Mr. President, thank you very much,” said plant manager Neil Whitt.