Foxconn Groundbreaking: Trump Ushers In New Day For Wisconsin

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI —On a sunlit afternoon in Mount Pleasant, President Donald Trump plunged a gold-colored shovel into farmland, signaling the beginning of the construction of a $10 billion Foxconn electronics manufacturing plant.

Under a massive American flag supported by construction equipment, he and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were joined by Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, House Speaker Paul Ryan among others.

"America is open for business more than it has ever been open for business," Trump said. "I want to wish you good luck, and congratulations on this - the eighth wonder of the world."

Trump said at the Thursday groundbreaking that Walker has been capably handling preparations for Foxconn, comparing his involvement to "running 2,000 yards during a football game."

"Your governor is a very talented person," Trump said. "I hope he doesn't run against me."

When Walker took the stage Thursday in rural Mount Pleasant in Braun Road, he said that the project would add $51 billion to Wisconsin’s gross domestic product over the next 15 years, translating to $18 returned for every $1 invested by the state.

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“This is a historic moment for our entire state and our country,” Walker said. “Wisconsin won Foxconn and the first LCD manufacturing facility in North America thanks to our outstanding workforce and strong manufacturing legacy. With Foxconn’s plans to create 13,000 direct good-paying, family-supporting jobs, and our record low unemployment rate of 2.8 percent, it makes it all the more important to attract more workers to Wisconsin.”

The size and scope of the proposed project is staggering: The roughly 20-million-square-foot plant will be located just north of County Line Road and just east of I-94 in Mount Pleasant in southern Racine County, according to local officials. That expanse is bordered by Braun Road to the north and Highway H to the east.

President Donald Trump Participates In Foxconn Groundbreaking Ceremony

Foxconn Technology Group is said to be the world's largest electronics manufacturing services provider, and officials say the company will invest an estimated $10 billion to build its Mount Pleasant campus. It will be the first in a series of world-class manufacturing facilities that Foxconn will be building in the U.S. to create new 8K +5G technology to meet the future needs of the latest visual display market.

Demonstrations Take Place Nearby

In response, the Gaia Coalition Network, made up of nearly 40 organizations, had several hundred people attend "Operation: Shake the Ground!" at Smolenski Park several miles away to voice their objections to a perceived misuse of public funds, to seizing the property rights of landowners and homeowners, to siphoning off water from Lake Michigan as well as posing other environmental threats, and to granting contracts to some of Walker's biggest donors.

"Luring Foxconn to Wisconsin is the biggest mistake of Scott Walker's tenure as governor. The factory has been promised a record-setting incentive package that will burden taxpayers for decades to come," organizers said in a prepared statement. "Funneling money to Foxconn takes away resources that should be going to fund our public schools and universities, to repair roads and bridges throughout the state, to fix the state's segregation and incarceration problems and to protect Wisconsin's natural areas."

The group then marched approximately half an hour to Mt. Pleasant Village Hall for a second rally featuring voices from all over the state concerned with the economic, political, social and environmental repercussions from the Foxconn deal and the Legislature that approved it.

Homeowners Speak Out

Jim Mahoney, who lives in the area that Foxconn wants to build in, said that he and his wife recently completed building their dream home when the Village of Mount Pleasant enacted eminent domain over surrounding properties in order to make an Aug. 1 deadline to acquire the land needed for the plant.

"We built a brand new house and you would think that you would never ever have to move if you didn't want to," he said. "We built a nice house in the country, it was really lovely. I just want people to know that if they can take my brand-new house, they can take your house, and it's not right."

He and spouse Kim Mahoney said they are continuing to negotiate with the village in order to get the money they say they need in order to move.

"I'm just going to keep living there until I can rebuild a new house in a similar location, I don't know what else to do."

Technology Open House Open

Foxconn is also hosting a two-day community open house that will provide residents from Racine County and the surrounding area an opportunity to see first-hand the advanced technologies that will be developed at its new Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park in Mount Pleasant.

“This two-day open house will give the public a chance to view and learn more about the latest technologies and applications that we will be developing at our Mount Pleasant campus,” Louis Woo, special assistant to Gou, said in a prepared statement.

Foxconn will be showcasing applications of the advanced display technology that it will be developing at the Wisconsin campus. These include applications in a wide range of devices and solutions, from the latest generation of displays in self-driving cars and aircraft systems to learning systems, personalized entertainment, healthcare and medical solutions, advanced manufacturing systems, and applications in interactive retail and safety.

Company officials say the Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park will be home to the first and only TFT fabrication facility in America, and Foxconn’s showcase at the open house will also include some of the advanced technologies in semiconductor panel level processing on glass that the company will be developing and producing at its TFT facility in Wisconsin. These technologies will be applied to next-generation products and solutions such as panel level processing, biochips, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), among others.

In addition, an experimental production line for the training and development of employees will also be on display, as well as beta testing of assembly and manufacturing systems that will be used in future Foxconn operations.

The demonstrations and exhibits will be the same ones that were on display for Trump’s visit. The open house will take place on Friday, June 29, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Saturday, June 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 13315 Globe Drive in Mount Pleasant.

Patch Photos

Groundbreaking Photos Courtesy Gov. Scott Walker's Office