Savannah, Georgia — Ancient President Donald Trump spoke on Tuesday about his manufacturing program and announced incentives to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, several of which he implemented as president and which had mixed results.
Speaking in Savannah, home to one of the busiest ports in the United States, Mr Trump promised: “Georgia and Savannah will be at the heart of the action. We will rebuild our industry, and it will be done quickly and beautifully.”
THE The economy is one of the main problems For voters across the country and in the key swing state of Georgia, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have offered targeted economic proposals. Harris plans to announce more details of her plans for the economy on Wednesday.
Trump said American companies would benefit from expanded tax credits for research and development, which was part of the 2017 tax cut passed during his presidency.
“You will be able to write off 100 percent of the cost of heavy machinery and other equipment in the first year and deduct 100 percent of new manufacturing investments,” Trump said of his plan.
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The proposal, known as “100% bonus expensing,” was adopted as part of the research and development tax credits. It allows companies to write off 100% of the cost of an investment in machinery or equipment in the first year, rather than depreciating it over a five-year period.
The former president also claimed that his administration would “take jobs from other countries” with the economic incentives he is proposing.
“We’re going to take back their factories,” Donald Trump said Tuesday. “We’re going to bring thousands and thousands of businesses and billions of dollars of wealth back to the good old country of the United States.”
“With this plan, American workers will no longer be afraid of losing their jobs to foreign countries,” he said. “Instead, foreign countries will be afraid of losing their jobs to the United States.”
Trump has said he would impose a “100% tariff” on cars from Mexico. Several major automakers, including General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen and Toyota, have manufacturing facilities in Mexico, and tariffs in general are unpopular among Republicans. His former adviser Gary Cohn said On “Face the Nation” earlier this month, he said that while tariffs are an “important tool” for a president, they could lead to inflation.
A number of Republicans do not share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said Tuesday that he was “not a fan of tariffs.”
As president, Trump imposed a series of tariffs on foreign products including solar panels, washing machines, clothing, steel and aluminum, arguing that the measures would help preserve American jobs. But many economists say the surge in protectionism has triggered retaliation from China, increased tensions with other key trading partners and heightened uncertainty in trade policy, all of which have hampered U.S. growth.
A study this year by some of the world’s top economists assessed the impact of Trump’s 2018-19 tariffs and whether they restored jobs to the United States and won voter support. It found that the net effect of import tariffs and retaliatory measures in regions hit by the trade war “has been a blip at best, and may have been slightly negative.”
The report said that import tariffs “had insignificant negative or positive effects on employment,” and that retaliatory tariffs “had a consistent and significant negative impact on employment.” However, the trade war did succeed in “boosting support” for the Republican Party, the study said, finding that people living in targeted protected areas “became less likely to identify as Democrats and more likely to vote for President Trump.”
Trump also touted his plan to cut the corporate tax rate from 21% — which was enshrined in law as part of Trump’s 2017 tax plan — to 15% to incentivize companies to produce in the United States.
As part of an effort to entice American companies to move production back to the states, Trump is proposing to create “special zones” on federal land that would be reserved for American companies and subject to lower taxes and regulations, but he has not provided any details on the plan.
In a gesture of solidarity with Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp, whom Trump had previously called a “nasty” and campaigned against in 2022, Trump praised Kemp as “fantastic” and thanked him “for his great support.” In 2020, Trump became the first Republican to lose Georgia in a presidential race since 1992, and he later called Kemp to ask him to call a special session of the Georgia legislature to overturn the election results, which Kemp refused to do.
But tensions between the two men had already eased. Before his last visit to Georgia in early August, Trump had offered Kemp a job deepening the Port of Savannah. Although Savannah’s port is still one of the largest in the country, the city was in decline before the boost of the Savannah College of Art and Design and tourism in the late 20th century.
“We’ll work with your governor and we’ll get it done very quickly,” Trump said Tuesday.
Trump also thanked Kemp for his support even as the Georgia governor campaigned in Pennsylvania with Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
This is Trump’s sixth visit to Georgia during the 2024 presidential campaign, one of the most controversial states.
CBS News poll shows Georgia race between Trump and Harris is a close one throw in the air.
