SAVANNAH, Ga. — Former President Donald Trump spoke about his manufacturing policies on Tuesday, announcing incentives to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Some of the incentives he implemented during his presidency had mixed results.
Speaking in Savannah, home to one of the nation’s busiest ports, Trump promised, “Georgia and Savannah will be right in the heart of the action. We’re going to build back manufacturing, and we’re going to do it quickly and we’re going to do it beautifully.”
With the economy being one of the top issues for voters across the country and in the battleground state of Georgia, President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have made several targeted economic proposals, with Harris set to release details of her economic plan on Wednesday.
Trump said U.S. companies would get an extension of the research and development tax credit, part of the 2017 tax cuts enacted during his presidency.
“In the first year, you can deduct 100% of the cost of heavy machinery and other equipment, and you can write off any new manufacturing investments as a 100% expense,” Trump said of the plan.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump addresses attendees during a campaign rally at the Johnnie Mercer Theatre in Savannah, Georgia, September 24, 2024. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
This proposal, known as 100% bonus expense recognition, was enacted as part of the research and development tax credit, which allows companies to deduct 100% of the cost of investments in machinery and equipment in the first year, rather than amortizing it over five years.
The former president also claimed the economic incentives he was offering would lead his administration to “take jobs away from other countries.”
“We’re going to take their factories,” Trump said Tuesday, “and bring thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars of wealth back to the good old America.”
“This plan will ensure that American workers don’t have to worry about losing their jobs to foreign countries,” he said. “Instead, foreign countries will have to worry about losing their jobs to America.”
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 are generally unpopular among Republicans. Former Trump adviser Gary Cohn told “Face the Nation” earlier this month that tariffs are a “key tool” for the president but could lead to inflation.
Some Republicans don’t 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 tariffs on a variety of foreign products, including solar panels, washing machines, clothing, steel, and aluminum, claiming that he would protect American jobs. But many economists say this increased protectionism has invited retaliation from China, increased tensions with other major trading partners, increased trade policy uncertainty, and slowed U.S. growth.
A study this year by some of the world’s leading economists assessed the impact of President Trump’s 2018-2019 tariffs and whether they helped restore jobs in the US and won the support of voters, finding that the net impact of the import tariffs and retaliatory tariffs on areas affected by the trade war “was at best positive, and possibly slightly negative.”
The report said that import tariffs “had a small negative or small positive effect on employment,” while retaliatory tariffs “consistently had a large negative effect on employment. But the trade war succeeded in “strengthening support” for the Republican Party, with people living in affected areas “less likely to identify as Democrats and more likely to vote for President Trump,” the study said.
Trump also touted his plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from the 21 percent enshrined in his 2017 tax reform plan to encourage companies to manufacture in the United States.
As part of an effort to encourage American companies to bring production back to the states, President Trump has proposed creating “special zones” on federal land designated for American companies with reduced taxes and regulations, but he has not provided details of the plan.
In a gesture of reconciliation to Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, whom Trump previously called a “bad guy” and was his 2022 presidential opponent, Trump praised Kemp as “fantastic” and thanked him for his “tremendous support.” In 2020, Trump became the first Republican to lose a presidential election in Georgia since 1992 and subsequently called Kemp to call a special session of the Georgia Legislature to overturn the election results, but Kemp refused.
But tensions had already begun to ease: Before his visit to Georgia in early August, Mr. Trump offered to work with Mr. Kemp to bolster Savannah’s port, which remains one of the nation’s largest but was in decline until the Savannah College of Art and Design and tourism helped revitalize the city at the end of the 20th century.
“We’re going to work with the governors to get that done quickly,” Trump said Tuesday.
Trump thanked Kemp for his support, even though the Georgia governor was campaigning in Pennsylvania with U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
It will be President Trump’s sixth visit to Georgia, one of the hottest battleground states in the 2024 presidential election.
A CBS News poll showed the race between Trump and Harris in Georgia is neck and neck.
