President Trump on Wednesday appeared to defend his proposal to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, but saying U.S. manufacturing jobs have been shed by the millions over the last few decades due in large part to bad U.S. trade policies.

“From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “Last year we had a Trade Deficit of almost 800 Billion Dollars. Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again! #MAGA”

From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars. Last year we had a Trade Deficit of almost 800 Billion Dollars. Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again! #MAGA — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2018



Trump didn't specifically mention his plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, but he has said for the last week that U.S. companies need to be defended from foreign trade in order to help rebuild U.S. jobs and manufacturing.

Last week, Trump announced that he would be signing a measure by the end of this week that would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports. But this week, he has still not indicated when that would be formally announced, and Republicans in Congress have been urging him to scale back his plan.