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By Gram Slattery
RACINE, Wis. (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sought to present himself as the best candidate for the U.S. economy at a rally on Tuesday in Racine, Wisconsin, where a local plant that was commissioned six years ago proved to be a major success. Big flop.
The former president also vowed to quickly rescind the plan announced by Democratic President Joe Biden earlier in the day that would give hundreds of thousands of people in the country illegally a path to citizenship.
“When I’m re-elected, Joe Biden’s amnesty plan will be rescinded and rescinded,” Trump said of the immigration order that applies to certain spouses of US citizens and some children.
Trump was in the working-class, lakeside city of Racine in 2018 to celebrate what was expected to be a $10 billion investment by Taiwanese technology group Foxconn. During his term from 2017 to 2021, Trump touted the facility, designed to produce televisions, as an example of how his “America First” policies would rejuvenate American manufacturing.
But while Foxconn originally expected to create 13,000 new jobs at the plant, the company now expects to create only about 1,500 jobs. The vacant fields west of downtown Racine, punctuated by empty roads, serve as a local symbol of broken promises.
The company, which did not respond to a request for comment, previously said it had changed its plans due to lower expected demand for the plant’s products.
Trump did not mention Foxconn on Tuesday. Instead, he focused on high inflation and mortgage rates, which have dented Biden’s popularity, including in politically competitive states like Wisconsin.
“No one can buy a house anymore. The American dream is dead. Interest rates are at the highest levels,” Trump told a crowd gathered on the shore of Lake Michigan.
However, Foxconn’s disappointing debut has opened a line of attack for local and national Democrats who say Trump has failed to deliver on his economic promises. They hope the message resonates in Wisconsin, one of the few states expected to decide the outcome of the Nov. 5 election.
According to an average of polls conducted by polling site FiveThirtyEight, Trump leads Biden in Wisconsin by 0.2 percentage points, despite losing the state in 2020, and the two candidates are competing fiercely for every vote.
Biden was in Racine last month to promote the construction of a $3.3 billion Microsoft (NASDAQ:) data center on a site where Foxconn was supposed to build part of its industrial campus.
“Foxconn turned out to be a hoax,” Biden told supporters at Gateway Technical College’s Sturtevant campus.
However, Trump has a strong base of domestic support, with many voters wanting to bypass Foxconn, and some officials publicly saying they are happy to create any jobs at all.
Anthony Ekman, 28 and unemployed, said he was disappointed when he failed to get a warehouse job he had planned to apply for at Foxconn.
But he said his personal financial situation has worsened under Biden, and he is likely to vote for Trump this year, despite his absence from the last election.
“I wish we had better candidates this year, but Biden has shown no signs of improving this country in my opinion,” Ekman said. “I think I’ll vote for Trump this year.”
In a statement, the Trump campaign blamed Biden for failing to control inflation and raise wages.
“Joe Biden’s policies have driven up prices, lower wages, and shut down manufacturing for American families — and have translated into strong approval of Biden across Wisconsin,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Crackdown on immigrants
Trump’s speech came hours after Biden announced a new effort to provide a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the United States illegally who are married to American citizens.
Biden’s new program will be open to an estimated 500,000 couples who have lived in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17, officials said Tuesday. About 50,000 children under 21 with a US citizen parent will also be eligible.
At his rally, Trump once again linked illegal immigration to violent crimes, despite there being no evidence that illegal immigrants in the country commit crimes at higher rates than American citizens.
Located just south of Milwaukee, Racine is a politically competitive city even by Wisconsin standards. Trump outperformed the Democratic nominee in both 2016 and 2020 by about 4 percentage points, while former Democratic President Barack Obama narrowly won the district in 2008 and 2012.
Last week, Trump described Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention will be held next month, as a “horrible city” during a meeting with Republicans in the US House of Representatives.
His campaign said he was referring to violent crimes and alleged election security issues in the city when he made the comment. Trump on Tuesday sought to dispel any notion that he does not like Wisconsin’s largest city.
“I love Milwaukee!” Trump said at the beginning of his speech. “These lying people say, ‘Oh, he doesn’t like Milwaukee.’ I love Milwaukee.”
