Donald Trump used a campaign appearance a week before the US midterm elections to showcase Audi's decision to build a new car factory in Georgia, with the automaker's chief beside him. According to the original report, the move reflects how narrowly the president can present a demonstrable economic success at the halfway point of his term: highlighting foreign corporate investment while avoiding closer scrutiny of other economic facts.
The Audi announcement is part of a series of projects disclosed since Trump's election victory two years ago. The report says some were compelled by his tariff policy, because foreign companies would otherwise struggle to remain competitive in the US market. Others are tied to a special boom in the US technology sector in the age of artificial intelligence, as companies seeking a role in that growth build chip plants or data centers in the United States.
On the whole, the report puts pledges of investment by foreign companies at more than $600 billion. It notes that Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, also generated a wave of investment, using subsidies for electric cars and climate-friendly technology under the Inflation Reduction Act rather than tariffs. Trump's approach is described as less subtle, with an effect almost twice as large.
Polls ahead of Tuesday's vote, in which all House seats and one-third of Senate seats are up, suggest the opposition Democrats could take control of at least the House and possibly the Senate. Republicans currently hold majorities in both chambers. The report notes that the president's party usually loses ground in midterms, but that the current level of dissatisfaction is historic: Trump's approval rating stands at 38 percent. Since World War II, only Harry Truman was lower, at 33 percent in 1946, when his party lost both chambers. The report adds that Truman had not been elected president in 1944, but came into office as Franklin Roosevelt's vice president after Roosevelt died a year after the presidential election, and that he later triumphed and governed until 1952.
Looking for the source of the discontent in economic data, the report points to inflation and debt. Under Trump, US debt has risen above $40 trillion, and the interest rates the government pays have also increased. The US government now spends more on interest payments than on the military, the opposite of Germany, according to the report. More important for everyday Americans, it says, is the rise in living costs: Trump has not kept his promise to curb inflation, and food and energy prices, including gasoline and diesel, are pushing the US inflation rate higher, which the report describes as a clear consequence of the Iran war Trump began. For most Americans, it concludes, that may matter more next week than the deferential appearance of a German auto executive at the president's side.
Sources: FAZ.