Biden trolls Trump by unveiling new facility on site of ex-president’s failed FoxConn plant

Nearly six years after then-president Donald Trump promised Racine, Wisconsin residents that the “eighth wonder of the world” would rise there in the form of a chip factory operated by Taiwanese semiconductor giant Foxconn, President Joe Biden delivered on his own, competing promise. Biden announced the construction of a $3.3bn artificial intelligence data center on the site where theplanned Foxconn plant never materialized on Wednesday.

The data center, which will be owned and operated by Microsoft, is set to employ 2,300 unionized workers during the construction phase of the project, and will eventually need 2,000 permanent workers at the facility.

The location of the facility — Racine — was once a Badger State manufacturing powerhouse, until globalization and slowdowns in manufacturing led to massive job losses.

Trump, who promised an industrial renaissance during his time in office, appeared in Racine in June 2018 to announce the construction of a Foxconn semiconductor fabrication facility that he claimed would create 13,000 jobs.

But that planned fabrication facility never came to fruition, leaving a vacant site and memories of broken promises from the former president’s visit six years ago.

Biden blamed “trickle-down economics” favoured by Trump and his advisers for the decline in employment in Racine and places like it during a speech on Wednesday. He recalled how the ex-president had brought a gold-coloured shovel to break ground on the facility in a highly-publicized announcement alongside Republican Senator Ron Johnson and then-governor Scott Walker — despite the fact that nothing ever came of it.

While more than $500 million in state funds were spent on purchasing and preparing the site, Foxconn’s promised