Savannah, Georgia — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke about his manufacturing agenda and announced incentives to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., several of which he implemented as president and had mixed results.
Speaking in Savannah, home of one of the busiest ports in the U.S., Trump promised, “Georgia and Savannah are going to be right in the center of the action. We’re going to rebuild our manufacturing, and it’s going to happen fast and beautifully.”
The economy is one of the top issues for voters nationwide and in the battleground state of Georgia, and Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have offered some targeted economic proposals. Harris plans to announce more details about her plans for the economy Wednesday.
Trump said U.S. companies would get expanded research and development tax credits, which was part of the 2017 tax cut enacted during his presidency.
“You’ll be able to write off 100% of the cost of heavy machinery and other equipment in the first year and full expensing for new manufacturing investments,” Trump said of his plan.
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This proposal, known as 100% bonus expensing, is something that was enacted as part of the R&D tax credits. It enables businesses to write off 100% of the cost of a machinery or equipment investment in the first year, rather than amortizing it over a five-year period.
The former president also claimed his administration would “take other countries’ jobs” with the economic incentives he is offering.
“We’re going to take their factories,” Trump said Tuesday. “We’re going to bring thousands and thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars in wealth back to the good old USA.”
“Under the plan, American workers will no longer be worried about losing your jobs to foreign nations,” he said. “Instead, foreign nations will be worried about losing their jobs to America.”
Trump said he would put a “100% tariff” on cars coming 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 that while tariffs are an “important instrument” 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 he’s “not a fan of tariffs.”
As president, Trump imposed a range of tariffs on foreign goods, including solar panels, washing machines, apparel, and steel and aluminum, arguing that they’d help safeguard U.S. jobs. But many economists said this surge in protectionism triggered retaliation from China, heightened tensions with other key trading partners and increased uncertainty in trade policy, dampening U.S. growth.
A study this year by some of the world’s top economists evaluated the impact of Trump’s 2018-2019 tariffs and whether they restored jobs to the U.S. and won support from voters. It found that the net effect of the import and retaliatory tariffs in the areas that were affected by the trade war “was at best a wash, and it may have been mildly negative.”
The report said that the import tariffs “had either insignificantly negative or insignificantly positive employment effects,” and the retaliatory tariffs “had a consistent and significant negative employment impact.” However, the trade war succeeded in “strengthening support” for the GOP, the study said, finding that those who lived in the target-protected areas “became less likely to identify as Democrats and more likely to vote for President Trump.”
Trump also touted his pitch to lower the corporate tax rate from 21% – which was cemented as law under Trump’s 2017 tax plan – to 15% to incentivize companies to manufacture in the U.S.
As part of an effort to entice U.S. companies to bring their production back to the states, Trump is proposing creating “special zones” on federal land that would be designated for American companies and feature lower taxes and regulations, but he offered no details about this plan.
In an olive branch to Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who Trump previously called a “bad guy” and whom he campaigned against in 2022, Trump praised Kemp as “fantastic” and thanked Kemp “for his great support.” In 2020, Trump became the first Republican to lose Georgia in a presidential race since 1992, and he later placed a call to Kemp asking him to convene a special session of the Georgia legislature to overturn the election results, which Kemp refused.
But tensions between the two had already been easing. Before Trump last visited Georgia in early August, he offered to work with Kemp to deepen the port of Savannah. Although the port of Savannah is still one of the largest ports in the country, the city had been in a period of decline before a revitalization push from the Savannah College of Art and Design and tourism toward the end of the 20th century.
“We’ll work with your governor, and we’re going to get that done very quickly,” Trump said Tuesday.
Trump also thanked Kemp for his support even though the Georgia governor was campaigning in Pennsylvania with Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
This is Trump’s sixth visit to Georgia during the 2024 presidential campaign cycle, one of the most contentious battleground states.
CBS News polling shows the race in Georgia between Trump and Harris is a toss up.