President Joe Biden shot former President Donald Trump on Wednesday as he visited Wisconsin to promote a new multibillion-dollar Microsoft investment at the same site where a Trump administration project failed.
The event in the 2024 election battleground state, which the White House billed as an official stop as president, came as Biden ramps up his campaign and official visits across the country as his political rival is largely stuck in a Manhattan courtroom.
“The administration has promised a $10 trillion investment from Foxconn to build a new industrial park, creating 13,000 new jobs. In fact, he came here with Senator Ron Johnson, literally carrying a golden shovel, promising to build the eighth wonder of the world. Biden said, careful not to use Trump's name, calling him only a "Salafist."
Instead, Biden announced a $3.3 billion investment from Microsoft to build an artificial intelligence data center at its Racine, Wisconsin, site. The data center will be located in the same location where Trump and Taiwanese technology company Foxconn planned to invest billions of dollars in 2018.
That facility was not implemented, even after the Biden administration said local and state governments had pumped in $500 million in taxpayer money to prepare the site.
Biden went on to troll Trump: “Are you kidding me? Look what happened. They dug a hole with these golden shovels, then they fell in.
Biden was referring to the 2018 groundbreaking ceremony that Trump attended with other officials, all carrying golden shovels. Then-President Trump shoveled dirt against a backdrop of a construction site, tractors and a large American flag.
“They wasted hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local taxes promising a project that never saw the light of day,” Biden added. “Foxconn turned out to be a hoax.”
Biden promised thousands of new jobs and his remarks were aimed at differentiating the Trump administration's economic policies from the White House's current approach - a message he continues to rely on as he seeks to sell his economic achievements to the American people before the presidential election. November elections.
"People, under the previous administration, my predecessor made more broken promises than he kept, and left too many people behind in communities like Racine. Under my watch, we are making promises and We keep our promises. We leave no one behind.” » Biden said.
This official stop, in the swing state of Wisconsin, will be followed by a campaign event in the state.
Wednesday's speech in Wisconsin is just the latest formal event Biden has held in important election states. Last week, he was in North Carolina touting new funding to help replace lead pipes across the state and country.
He also frequents the important swing state of Pennsylvania, for campaign appearances and official presidential events.