Donald Trump held a rally in the city of Racine, Wisconsin, on Tuesday (18), where he criticized the way President Joe Biden, Democrat, deals with the economy, even while an important local factory, in which Trump launched the foundation stone six years ago, it proved to be a failure.
In 2018, the former Republican president was in this city to celebrate what was expected to be a US$10 billion investment by Taiwanese technology group Foxconn. During his term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump touted the facility, designed to produce TVs, as an example of how his “America First” policies have revitalized American manufacturing.
However, while Foxconn originally anticipated 13,000 new jobs at the factory, the company now expects to create only around 1,500 jobs. Empty fields west of downtown Racine, surrounded by empty roads, serve as a local symbol of unfulfilled promises.
The company, which did not respond to a request for comment, previously said it changed its plans due to a reduction in projected demand for the factory’s products.
“I think people look at it as a joke,” said Nancy Anderson, a 67-year-old retired teacher, while eating breakfast at a local cafe.
According to the former president’s campaign, Trump addressed, among other issues, the impacts of high inflation under the Biden administration on Wisconsin residents.
Foxconn’s disappointing debut opened a line of attack for local and national Democrats who say Trump has failed to deliver on his economic promises. They hope that message resonates in Wisconsin, one of the few states expected to be competitive in the Nov. 5 election.
According to an average of polls maintained by the research website FiveThirtyEight, Trump leads Biden in Wisconsin by 0.2 percentage points, despite having lost the state in 2020.
The two candidates are fighting for every vote. Biden was in Racine last month to announce the construction of a $3.3 billion Microsoft data center on a site where Foxconn was expected to build part of its manufacturing campus.
“Foxconn turned out to be just that — a scam,” Biden told supporters at Gateway Technical College’s Sturtevant campus.
Still, Trump has a solid base of support, with many voters willing to look past the Foxconn issue.
Anthony Eckman, a 28-year-old who is unemployed, said he was disappointed when a warehouse position he planned to apply for at Foxconn did not open.
But he said his personal finances have worsened under Biden, and he will likely vote for Trump this year despite not voting in the last election.
“I wish we had better candidates this year, but Biden has shown no signs of improving this country in my opinion,” Eckman said. “I think I’ll vote for Trump this year.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Racine is about 40 miles south of Milwaukee and is considered politically competitive even by Wisconsin standards. Trump beat the Democratic nominee in both 2016 and 2020 by about 4 percentage points, while former Democratic President Barack Obama won the county by narrow margins in 2008 and 2012.
Last week, Trump called Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention will take place next month, a “horrible city” during a meeting with Republicans in the US House of Representatives.
His campaign said he was referring to violent crime and alleged election security problems in the city when he made that comment.
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