I think President Trump enjoys the romanticised view of miners that pervaded the UK during the Miners' Strike - the idea that they are the backbone of the country - hard day's work for a hard day's pay / honest toil / salt of the earth .... and so on and so on.
But that romantic image was shattered by harsh economic reality, which is what the real world runs on.
The UK steel industry is on its way out because manufacturers can import Chinese steel more cheaply than UK steel plants can make it - again, simple economics wins every time, over romanticism.
So President Trump's teary-eyed notion that the 'backbone' or American industry is going to start up again because he has nixed the climate change regs is another dream about to be shattered.
The simple fact is, the fossil fuels market is not there any more, so even if you re-open closed mines, and mine the coal out of them, if there is no-one willing to buy that coal, then the exercise is futile.
It's ironic that the romantic view of the 'working man' is the bastion of the Left, and yet it is being embraced by President Trump, who is about three inches to the right of Attila The Hun.
Strange times ...