CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — President Donald J. Trump stood just miles from the site of one of the biggest industrial projects in America on Saturday and told Tennessee exactly why it is happening. “Thanks to my tariffs, Korea Zinc is investing over $6 billion and creating 740 jobs right here in Montgomery County and Smith County, Tennessee,” the President told the Clarksville crowd. “That’s a lot. And your state will soon be home to the first new mineral smelter in the United States… a big one, beautiful one, great jobs, good high-paying jobs.”

The project is historic. Korea Zinc, the world’s leading nonferrous metals maker, is building its first U.S. operations through its American company, Crucible Metals: a state-of-the-art critical-minerals smelter on the existing zinc plant site in Montgomery County, with $6.6 billion in capital spending and about $7.4 billion in total investment. Tennessee calls it the largest single private corporate investment in state history. The company will create 420 new jobs in Montgomery County and 320 in Smith County, where it plans to reopen a former mine, and the 420 new Clarksville jobs are projected to pay $83,000 to $196,000 a year.

This is America First industrial policy at work. Under President Trump’s direction to make critical minerals a national-security priority, the Department of War and the Department of Commerce partnered on the project. “The Department of War’s conditional investment of $1.4 billion to build the first U.S.-based zinc smelter and critical minerals processing facility since the 1970s reverses 50 years of industrial decline,” Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg said. The complex will produce 13 nonferrous metals, including 11 the U.S. government designates as critical, which means no more chokepoints for aerospace, defense and electronics.

The President added another Tennessee win. “General Motors just announced a $275 million investment in the Spring Hill manufacturing facility,” he said. “Great company. General Motors has been great, by the way.” GM’s investment brings a future Cadillac to Spring Hill Assembly and extends the plant’s 2.7-liter turbo engine program, which powers Chevrolet and GMC pickups.

Factories, smelters and engine lines, built by American workers on American soil: that is what tariffs deliver. As the President said Saturday, “we’ve never had anything like it.” Watch the Official White House video.