Friends in High Places

City Machine grabs brief audience with POTUS

We might have finally found someone who has the president’s ear. City Machine Technologies, regular EA page occupier, advertiser, trade show frequenter, and industry veteran, was able to to score a brief audience with President Trump last week, per a picture and accompanying caption on the company’s Facebook page.

On Monday, the following picture was posted of two CMT employees:

The photo, which also appears to include a CMT truck, was captioned: “Talking lifting magnets with the President!”. Turns out, the company was there as part of the Made in America Product Showcase. They arrived Sunday to drop off a 3,300-pound, 47-inch deep aluminum scrap handler industrial lifting magnet displayed during the event, Michael Moliterno of The Business Journal reported Monday. (Check out Mr. Moliterno’s article for a glimpse into White House security and logistics when a business receives a call like this.) CMT also sent EA a special press release commenting on the invite:

On Monday, July 23, 2018, President Donald J. Trump highlighted American-made goods at the White House during the Made in America Product Showcase. One company was selected from each state to represent American-made goods at the White House.

Youngstown-based City Machine Technologies, Inc. (CMT) was honored to be on the South Lawn of the White House showcasing its own unique line of American-made lifting and separating magnets for the state of Ohio.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to be one of 50 companies both big and small showcasing what America can make when we roll up our sleeves and work hard,” says company founder Michael J. Kovach. “America was built on the manufacturing industry, and it’s great to see it’s alive and well today.”

Being invited to the showcase makes sense, considering City Machine is a company that exemplifies many of the things championed by our president during his campaign—a family-owned manufacturing operation out of the Rust Belt that has kept its operations onshore.

CMT is a family-owned and operated tunkey business based in Youngstown, Ohio. Its owner, Mike Kovach, a lifelong Youngstown resident, with a Bachelor of Engineering from Youngstown State University, opened on August 9, 1985 in an 8,500 square foot facility with two employees. He used his own savings after working in other machine shops following college.

These are the things we do take pride in about our country. One can only hope CMT passed on some valuable advice to our executive branch.

Two things to unpack here, without getting into politics.

One, regardless of who currently holds the office, it’s pretty darn cool to see any of our fellow industry members on the white house lawn (or driveway, in this case). Kudos to the folks at CMT for their quality of work.

Two, we now at least know President Trump took a nugget of his time to get properly informed about something involving engineering! I mean, the guy knows how to lift magnets now! There were reporters there! This cannot go overlooked, we have hard evidence. The President is a magnet expert, thanks to City Machine.