Six months into his presidency, Donald Trump and his White House team announced that Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, was poised to invest billions in a factory in Wisconsin. Not long after, the Republican headlined a “groundbreaking” event on the site — Trump even held a shovel painted gold — claiming that the high-tech venue would be the “eighth wonder of the world.”
It was not. In fact, the ambitious project never lived up to the hype, despite the incredibly generous subsidies and tax incentives included in the original deal. Trump touted the project as proof of the efficacy of his economic agenda, but ultimately the Foxconn deal proved to be largely a debacle.
It did, however, help set the stage for something even better. NBC News reported:
President Joe Biden traveled Wednesday to Wisconsin to announce a $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft to build an artificial intelligence data center. The data center will be built on the property of a planned $10 billion Foxconn facility that Donald Trump touted during his presidency as a major revival of tech manufacturing in the U.S.
In his remarks at Gateway Technical College in Sturtevant, in Racine County, the incumbent Democrat didn’t mention his predecessor by name, but Biden nevertheless took the opportunity to highlight Trump’s “failed promises.”“They dug a hole with those golden shovels, and then they fell into it,” Biden said at the same location as Trump’s failure. “Foxconn turned out to be just that — a con,” he added.
To be sure, the Democrat seemed pleased to announce the good news, but he seemed especially pleased to succeed where the presumptive GOP nominee failed.
What’s more, this keeps happening.
Trump tried and failed to deliver an infrastructure package, while Biden succeeded on the issue.
Trump tried and failed to advance legislation to address gun violence, while Biden succeeded on the issue.
Trump said he’d use Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs, while Biden succeeded on the issue.
Trump said he knew how to negotiate a series of bipartisan deals, while Biden succeeded in doing so.
Trump tried and failed to deliver record job growth, while Biden succeeded on the issue.
And Trump also tried and failed to deliver a tech breakthrough in Wisconsin, while Biden succeeded on the issue.
For the former president, the problem is not just that Biden has succeeded while Trump failed, it’s also that Biden is succeeding where Trump failed.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.