By Gram Slattery
RACINE, Wis. (Reuters) –Donald Trump addressed supporters Tuesday at a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, in an effort to portray himself as the best candidate for the U.S. economy even as a major local factory he broke ground on six years ago turned out to be a flop.
The Republican former president was in this largely working-class lakeside city in 2018 to celebrate an expected $10 billion investment by Taiwanese technology group Foxconn. During his term from 2017 to 2021, Trump touted the factory, designed to produce TVs, as an example of how his “America First” policies had rejuvenated American manufacturing.
But while Foxconn originally forecast 13,000 new jobs at the factory, the company now expects to create only about 1,500 jobs. Empty fields west of downtown Racine, surrounded by empty roads, serve as a local symbol of unfulfilled promise.
The company, which did not respond to a request for comment, previously said it has changed its plans due to a reduction in expected demand for the plant’s products.
“I think people see it as a joke,” says Nancy Anderson, a 67-year-old retired teacher, as she eats breakfast at a local cafe.
Trump’s speech to supporters at a lakeside park was underway at 3:45 p.m. local time (2045 GMT). One of the topics the campaign says he will address is how high inflation is under his rival, the president Joe Bidenhas hurt Wisconsin residents.
In a statement to Reuters, the Trump campaign accused Biden of failing to control inflation and raise wages.
“Joe Biden’s policies have led to higher prices, lower wages and a stalled manufacturing industry for American families — and that has translated into a bottom for Biden across Wisconsin,” said spokesperson Anna Kelly.
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 that message resonates in Wisconsin, one of the few states expected to be competitive in the Nov. 5 election.
According to an average of polling website FiveThirtyEight’s surveys, Trump leads Biden in Wisconsin by 0.2 percentage points, despite losing the state in 2020.
The two candidates are frantically competing for every vote. Biden was in Racine last month to tout the construction of a $3.3 billion Microsoft data center on a site where Foxconn would build part of its manufacturing campus.
“Foxconn turned out to be just that: a fraud,” Biden told supporters at the Sturtevant campus of Gateway Technical College.
Still, Trump has a solid base of support, with many voters willing to move past Foxconn and some officials publicly saying they are happy that jobs have been created at all.
Anthony Eckman, a 28-year-old unemployed person, said he was disappointed when a warehouse position he had planned to apply for at Foxconn did not materialize.
But he said his personal finances have deteriorated under Biden, and he will likely vote for Trump this year despite sitting out the last election.
“I wish we had better candidates this year, but Biden, in my opinion, showed no signs of improving this country,” Eckman said. “I think I’m going to vote for Trump this year.”
Racine is about 40 miles south of Milwaukee and is considered politically competitive even by Wisconsin standards. Trump defeated the Democratic nominee by about 4 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020, while former Democratic President Barack Obama narrowly won the county in 2008 and 2012.
Last week, Trump called Milwaukee, which will host the Republican National Convention next month, a “terrible city” during a meeting with Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.
His campaign said he was referring to violent crimes and alleged election security problems in the city when he made that comment.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery, Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Deepa Babington)
