Donald Trump Says US Robbed by 'Elite' He 'Used to Be' Part Of

The presumptive Republican frontrunner gave an economic speech today.

ByABC News
June 28, 2016, 3:21 PM

MONESSEN, Pennsylvania— -- Donald Trump announced a twist on his campaign slogan during an economic speech in Pennsylvania, saying that he has a plan to "Make America Wealthy Again" and claiming that the country was robbed by the "financial elite" of which he "used to be" part.

"The legacy of Pennsylvania steelworkers lives in the bridges, railways and skyscrapers that make up our great American landscape. But our workers' loyalty was repaid you know it better than anybody with betrayal," Trump said during the speech, at an aluminum plant.

"Our politicians have aggressively pursued a policy of globalization - moving our jobs, our wealth and our factories to Mexico and overseas," he added.

Trump repeatedly said under his presidency he would order "American steel" to be used to reinforce bridges and build "skyscrapers soaring, soaring into the sky."

At one point during the speech he added that aluminum would also be used in addition to steel. The comment -- where he said "And aluminum!" -- was not in the prepared version of his speech that was released before delivery.

While standing in front of an unusual backdrop of what appeared to be stacked bales of crushed aluminum, Trump slammed globalization and said that it made "the financial elite" very wealthy, noting that "I used to be one of them. Hate to say it."

He went on to criticize NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, and the work of Bill Clinton's administration as well as Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State, accusing her of standing "idly" by "while China cheated on its currency, added another trillion dollars to our trade deficits, and stole hundreds of billions of dollars in our intellectual property."

"I've been talking about China for years but they didn’t listen, but they’re listening now," Trump said.

Trump outlined seven steps he would take to help bring back American jobs lost to globalization, including withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, renegotiating the terms of NAFTA, order the Secretary of Commerce to identify trade agreement abuses and "direct all appropriate agencies to use every tool under American and international law to end these abuses."

He later revisited the issue of China, singling them out as a country that he would want labeled as a currency manipulator and he would use tariffs and taxes to stop any further violations from happening.