Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., addressed the Ames Straw Poll on Saturday with a message: China is cheating on trade.

Hunter talked about manufacturing being moved overseas. When soldiers were being fought with roadside bombs, Hunter said he went around the country trying to find a company to make armor for vehicles for American soldiers.

He said many of the companies that made defense items were no longer in the country.

“I started to look across the list of all the important items that we need in national defense, and I found that a lot of them had moved across the ocean,” he said.

Hunter blamed much of the “manufacturing base” of America leaving the country on China for “cheating on trade.”

Hunter said China is devaluing its currency by 40 percent and taking billions of dollars more from the U.S. than the U.S. is of it.

“And they’re using their money to buy ships and planes and missiles,” he said.

Hunter then discussed why he is running for president.

“I don’t want to see a time when our trade deficit is so huge and we’ve sent so much of our industrial base offshore that we’re worried about our men and women in uniform someday looking at those same weapon systems that we financed coming back across the battlefield at our women in uniform, I want to stop that,” he said.

Hunter said he would stop them from cheating on trade to help America.

When it came to national defense, Hunter said to keep America strong would help keep America safe.

“I have a motto, it’s a motto I came in with with Ronald Regan, it’s called peace through strength,” he said.

Iran was also talked about as a potential problem.

“After we’re successful in Iraq, and ladies and gentlemen, we will be successful in Iraq, we may have a problem with Iran,” he said. “As president of the Untied States, I will not allow Iran to have a nuclear device.”

Hunter also gave his plans for the southern border of the United States.

“As president of the United States, I’ll complete that border fence, all 854 miles, in six months, that’s my commitment to you,” he said.

Hunter also said he would defend the Second Amendment and that he would not appoint a judge who “could look at a sonogram and not see a valuable human life.”