Shopper confidence is up. Fears of a recession are abating. The economic system is rising. And a corroded bridge in Wisconsin is receiving extra funding.
It’s a wintry mixture of optimistic information for President Biden, who traveled to the shores of a bay close to Lake Superior on Thursday to face on the foot of the Blatnik Bridge, a construction that his administration mentioned would have failed by 2030 with out a $1 billion infusion offered by the bipartisan infrastructure regulation that Mr. Biden championed.
The president was there to speak infrastructure and the economic system, and to distinction his efficiency with that of his predecessor and sure challenger within the basic election , former President Donald J. Trump.
“The financial development is stronger than we had through the Trump administration,” Mr. Biden, wearing an informal pullover sweater, mentioned as he addressed Wisconsinites assembled at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wis. “We clearly have extra work to do, however we’re making actual progress.”
Because the president spoke, Mr. Trump was taking the stand in a defamation trial in New York, providing a hanging split-screen comparability that the Biden marketing campaign has welcomed.
Mr. Biden and his advisers imagine initiatives just like the Blatnik, happening within the backyards of Individuals residing in battleground states like Wisconsin, might be sufficient to bolster optimism and overcome pervasive skepticism concerning the state of the economic system.
In his occasion, Mr. Biden talked concerning the $6.1 billion that had been invested in Wisconsin and the $5.7 billion in Minnesota, positioned simply over the bridge, which helps agriculture, transport and forestry industries within the higher Midwest. The Blatnik, which spans the St. Louis Bay and connects the ports of Superior and Duluth, Minn., had corroded and been clogged with building and detours.
“For many years folks talked about changing this bridge, nevertheless it by no means received achieved,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “Till as we speak.”
Bipartisan regulation or not, no Republican lawmakers assembled to greet Mr. Biden. (“I’m sorry to say the overwhelming majority voted in opposition to it,” Mr. Biden mentioned, a quantity that features Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican representing the district the place the bridge is positioned.)
The Democratic governors of each Wisconsin and Minnesota confirmed up. “This is able to not have occurred with out Biden,” Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin informed attendees.
A number of different Democrats, together with Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, accompanied the president as he noticed the bridge and, later, met with folks at a taproom subsequent to the brewery. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota sipped a glass of beer as she mingled subsequent to Mr. Biden.
Even with out no-show Republicans, who’re shortly closing ranks round Mr. Trump, there are different headwinds to beat.
Mr. Biden has confronted low approval rankings on the economic system. And he has been criticized by different Democrats over whether or not it was good of him to undertake Bidenomics as a namesake effort to take credit score for an economic system that Individuals have repeatedly signaled they don’t really feel enthusiastic about.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden didn’t appear to be feeling any qualms. Within the brewery, he stood in entrance of a pole that had letters spelling “Bidenomics,” and assailed Mr. Trump for “hollowed-out communities, closing down factories, leaving Individuals behind.”
For his half, Mr. Trump has attacked Mr. Biden on nearly every thing, however has additionally falsely claimed that low employment numbers beneath the Biden administration will not be actual.
Elsewhere within the Midwest, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen took uncommon goal at Mr. Trump throughout a speech in Chicago.
“Our nation’s infrastructure has been deteriorating for many years,” Ms. Yellen mentioned on Thursday. “Within the Trump administration, the thought of doing something to repair it was a punchline.”
There was reality to her remark. Throughout Mr. Trump’s presidency, he would typically veer away from infrastructure-related speeches to assault his enemies. In his first Infrastructure Week-themed occasion in 2017, he accused James B. Comey, whom he had fired as F.B.I. director, of committing perjury and of leaking to the information media. He later proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure package deal with out specifics on how he’d get the cash. The phrase “Infrastructure Week” grew to become a operating joke in Washington.
In November 2021, Mr. Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure invoice into regulation.
“As a substitute of infrastructure week, America is having an infrastructure decade,” Mr. Biden mentioned on Thursday, referring to the work his administration has achieved.
In a present of how vital Wisconsin shall be forward of the election in November, Mr. Biden traveled there simply three days after Vice President Kamala Harris started a nationwide tour for reproductive rights in an occasion outdoors Milwaukee. Wisconsin is a battleground state the place his marketing campaign is specializing in courting Black voters, younger voters and any voters who may assist him wrest the state’s 10 electoral votes from Mr. Trump.
Although Mr. Trump was in court docket, the Republican Nationwide Committee launched an announcement criticizing Mr. Biden for making the journey and blaming Bidenomics for financial issues.
“With staggering inflation and negative economic growth, Wisconsinites are feeling the brunt of Joe Biden’s failures,” the group’s chairman, Ronna McDaniel, mentioned in an announcement. “Strive as he may, it’s too little, too late to impress staff and households who’re residing paycheck to paycheck because of Bidenomics.”
Alan Rappeport contributed reporting from Washington.
