Donald Trump announces White House shipbuilding office

President Trump announced a new White House office to revive the U.S. shipbuilding industry.

“To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday in an address to a joint session of Congress.

He said special tax incentives will be given to shipbuilding companies “to bring the industry home, where it belongs.”

“We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact to further enhance our national security,” he said.

The speech then pivoted to his plan to reclaim the Panama Canal and said an American company was purchasing the ports on either end of the canal.

A Hong Kong-based conglomerate has agreed to sell its controlling stake in a subsidiary that operates ports near the Panama Canal to a consortium including BlackRock Inc., effectively putting the ports under American control after President Trump alleged Chinese interference with the operations of the critical shipping lane.