(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden rebuked Donald Trump during a visit to the swing state of Wisconsin, defending a major Microsoft Corp. investment. on the same site. His rival’s plans for 2024 for a flagship Foxconn technology project fizzled.
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Biden said the Foxconn investment announced by his predecessor turned out to be “a scam,” mocking the former president for failing to deliver on promises to create good-paying jobs in the state and stimulate domestic manufacturing industry.
Biden was joined at the event by Microsoft President Brad Smith to announce a $3.3 billion plan by the company to build an artificial intelligence data center at a site in Racine County, in Wisconsin. The facility will be built on land chosen for a massive investment by Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn. Trump attended the groundbreaking in 2018, citing it as the centerpiece of his efforts to create more manufacturing jobs in the United States.
“He came here with your Senator Ron Johnson, literally holding a golden shovel, promising to build ‘the eighth wonder of the world,'” Biden said Wednesday. “They dug a hole with these golden shovels and they fell in.”
Foxconn, a supplier to Apple Inc., had agreed to build the technology manufacturing center on farmland south of Milwaukee and create up to 13,000 good-paying jobs. But efforts have been significantly scaled back, hit by delays and changes of plans. One state agency says it has created just over 1,000 jobs so far.
“My predecessor made promises. He broke more than he kept, leaving behind many people and communities like Racine. Under my leadership, we make promises and we keep our promises,” Biden said.
Smith, who grew up in the state, also alluded to Foxconn’s struggles, saying it was important for companies to “underpromise, overdeliver and work with the community” on capital projects .
“It’s the way of doing business here,” he added.
Foxconn said in a statement that it has invested about $1 billion in Wisconsin and helped secure bonds to build the infrastructure for other technology companies to locate in the state.
“We are proud of the more than 1,000 men and women who work at Foxconn Wisconsin,” the company said.
Biden touted bipartisan infrastructure and semiconductor subsidy legislation that he said brought new investment to communities across the United States and spurred a renaissance in domestic manufacturing. It’s an attempt to distinguish his record from that of Trump, who he says watched American jobs go to China.
Yet that message has proven difficult to get across, as polls show voters are skeptical of Biden’s handling of the economy and willing to give his predecessor more credit for his handling.
Wisconsin is one of the battleground states where this issue will be resolved in November. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll from April showed Biden trailing Trump in key states likely to determine the outcome of the election. In Wisconsin, the poll gives Trump a score of 4…
