President Joe Biden will announce a major business investment in Wisconsin — on the same site as a Trump-era project that failed to live up to expectations.
Biden is traveling to the battleground state Wednesday to announce what his administration says will be a $3.3 billion data center project from Microsoft that will lead to 2,300 construction jobs followed by 2,000 permanent employees.
And as a taunt to former President Donald Trump, the same site is home to a project from Taiwanese chipmaker Foxconn, which was announced as a $10 billion development in 2017 but was later scaled back to less than $1 billion.
“Breaking from failed trickle-down policies of past administrations, President Biden’s agenda is bringing innovation hubs to every corner of the country,” a statement from the White House reads. “President Biden is delivering on his promise to create good jobs that will have a lasting impact on communities and families.”
Team Biden will play up the development as an edge in Wisconsin as both campaigns look to win the Badger State and claim they will be better for the economy. Trump holds a slim 1.8-point lead, per the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Biden will deliver a speech in Racine, located 25 miles south of Milwaukee.
Wisconsin is one of the Rust Belt states that Trump won en route to his shocking 2016 win over Hillary Clinton. Biden then took it back in 2020 by a margin of 20,000 votes, or 0.63%.
Manufacturing and union jobs are being emphasized by both campaigns and will play heavily in Biden’s speech Wednesday. The White House announcement laments that “manufacturers shut down and shipped jobs overseas.”
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Foxconn was set to manufacture LCD screens in its project, which was touted by Trump at the time, but that project was scaled back considerably. The Biden White House says Wisconsin lost 6,000 manufacturing jobs during the Trump administration.
“President Biden promised that unlike his predecessor, he wouldn’t leave communities like Racine behind,” the White House said. “Since President Biden took office, nearly 4,000 jobs have been added in Racine — a third of them in manufacturing — and 177,000 jobs have been added in Wisconsin.”
