President Trump toured a sprawling manufacturing site in Ohio that has been building Army tanks and armored vehicles since World War II.

It nearly shuttered in 2012 under the drastic “sequestration” cuts, but it now produces about 11 tanks a month and employs a growing workforce of 580.

President Donald Trump toured the US's last tank facility on Wednesday in a move to highlight the impact of his soaring defense spending in a politically crucial state.

The Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio, has been building Army tanks and armored vehicles since World War II. It nearly ceased tank production in 2012 under the drastic "sequestration" cuts, but it now produces about 11 tanks a month and employs a growing workforce of 580.

The plant's assembly line is roaring back under Trump's defense spending hikes, including $718 billion proposed for fiscal year starting in October.

"Well, you better love me; I kept this place open, that I can tell you" Trump said to the cheers of workers, who are unionized. "They said, 'We’re closing it.' And I said, 'No, we’re not.' And now you’re doing record business."

The tank plant nearly closed temporarily under the Obama adminstration but lawmakers intervened to keep its assembly line going, but at a much slower pace than that under the Trump administration.

Here’s a history of the sprawling tank plant, a still-operating legacy of World War II America's so-called arsenal of democracy.