Andrew Liveris, the Australian businessman advising Donald Trump on boosting manufacturing jobs has declared him the most pro-business president since the "Founding Fathers" established the United States of America in 1776.
The Dow Chemical chief executive was one of 24 manufacturing leaders to meet with Mr Trump at the White House on Thursday - Washington time - to brainstorm economic policy ideas.
Earlier on Thursday Mr Trump hosted the chief executives of Dell Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool, automaker Ford, conglomerate GE, drug maker Merck, US Steel, aerospace and defence firm Lockheed Martin, machinery company Caterpillar and food processing multinational Archer Daniels Midland, among others.
The billionaire real estate developer turned President said "some of the great people in business" are here. They broke into four working groups to draw up recommendations on tax and trade, deregulation, workforce for the future and infrastructure.
The President bemoaned that one-third of US manufacturing jobs had been lost since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada took effect in 1994 and claimed that 70,000 factories had closed since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001.
"My administration's policies and regulatory reforms, tax reforms, trade policies will return significant manufacturing jobs to our country," Mr Trump said.
Mr Liveris, head of the President's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, said Mr Trump was speaking the "language of business".
"All the CEOs who were here today and in the last meeting are very encouraged by the pro-business policies of President Trump and his cabinet," Mr Liveris said.
"Some of us have said that this is probably the most pro-business administration since the Founding Fathers."
Mr Trump's pro-business talk is a sharp contrast to president Barack Obama, who layered new financial, climate, healthcare and other regulations on corporations and sometimes lashed their behaviour.
The Dow Chemical boss said reforms to tax, regulation, workforce training and trade to create a level playing field for American business, could increase the number of basic and advanced manufacturing jobs.
Economists have cast doubt on Mr Trump's claims that he can restore many manufacturing jobs, because automation – not trade – is erasing employment in the sector.
A recent study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University found that 85 per cent of the 5.6 million manufacturing jobs lost between 2000 and 2010 was due to technological change.
Mr Trump has appointed prominent business people to his Cabinet and White House.
These include former Goldman Sachs bankers Mr Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary and Gary Cohn as economic adviser, billionaire restructuring investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary and former ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.
On the topic of the country's decaying infrastructure, US Steel chief Mario Longhi compared the under investment in the electrical grid, transport and water supply to China building "about 100 airports".
"It's pretty obvious that we really haven't done anything serious as far as infrastructure is concerned since President Eisenhower," he said.
Marillyn Hewson, the chief of Lockheed Martin who has been under pressure from Mr Trump to cut the costs of fighter jets it is building for the US Defence Department, said the President "listened intently" and was ready to cut and streamline regulation to make business more competitive.
