A $10 billion national defense renaissance championed by the Trump administration will rely on Pennsylvania’s skilled workers to build “the arsenal of freedom.”

That lineup includes welders, electricians, ship builders, munitions and vehicle manufacturers, university researchers, space robotics engineers and cybersecurity professionals, among many others.

All, in large part, trades that Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick opined once feared an uncertain future amid the rise of artificial intelligence.

“So ironically, at this moment where AI is creating this anxiety about job disruption, it’s actually creating also this huge demand for people who build things,” McCormick said during a defense industry summit he organized in Cumberland County. “And that’s for not just data centers, it’s for all the infrastructure, steel and pharmaceuticals, and all the things that we need for the future.”

The sentiment echoed throughout the two-day conference, which heralded industry investment totaling nearly $10 billion, and concluded with President Donald Trump’s keynote speech, where he described the worker pool across the state as nothing short of a “miracle.”

“Pennsylvania workers will build the ships, submarines, trucks, weapons and industries that will ensure America remains the strongest and most powerful nation in the history of the world,” he said.

First-term Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who just hours earlier shared the same sentiment with McCormick and defense contractor CEOs, didn’t factor into Trump’s vision, however.

“This guy Shapiro is totally overrated,” Trump said. “I watched him the other night doing a speech and he does not have what it takes.”

Shapiro, running for reelection against Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity in November, has commanded a double-digit lead in polling over the last year, including a Wednesday release from Quinnipiac University that found him 13 percentage points ahead.

The lead, although comfortable, is down roughly 5 points from where it was in February.

It wouldn’t be the first time Garrity unseated an incumbent Democrat. Her rise to statewide office in 2020 came after she defeated Treasurer Joe Torsella by roughly 53,000 votes — the first Republican to do so in nearly three decades.

During Garrity’s successful bid for reelection in 2024, she broke a Pennsylvania record for most votes received in a statewide election, which was previously held by Shapiro in his 2022 gubernatorial victory.

And this time, Garrity has the backing of Trump, who appeared with her at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 30. Calling herself a “strong ally,” Garrity touted that hers was among the first campaigns the president endorsed this year.

“Maybe he’ll win, and he’s expected to win, but I hear things about Stacy, and I’m hearing some poll numbers that are very good,” Trump said on Wednesday.

Although Trump won the state’s 19 electoral votes in 2024 over Vice President Kamala Harris, polls show a majority of Pennsylvanians disapprove of his recent job performance.

Fifty-eight percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of his job as president, while 39% approve, and 3% had no opinion. The latest poll is slightly worse than February’s survey, which showed 40% said they approved of Trump’s job performance, while 55% disapproved.

Shapiro, for his part, took a more subtle dig at the president’s global relations, saying that he believes strong national defense relies on secure foreign allies.

“I get candidly, I get a little bit concerned when our administration pokes their finger in the eye of our allies,” he said. “That undermines our ability to innovate, and it undermines our ability to be stronger with our national defense and to have a deterrence that is going to protect the American people and protect our interests abroad.”

John Cole contributed to this report.