Increased investment in manufacturing under President Biden’s watch is a point of pride that Biden hopes will appeal to Americans who’ve been disenchanted by jobs ceded to Asia. Emily Elconin/Bloomberg

President Biden is heading to Maine to tout a manufacturing boom under his watch, as the White House seeks to promote economic policies that have yet to resonate with voters.

Investment in manufacturing construction just had its single largest contribution to the nation’s economic growth in more than four decades, contributing 0.4 percentage point to better-than-expected GDP growth in the second quarter – a development economists attribute in part to Biden’s policies.

But Biden has grown increasingly frustrated with ineffective West Wing messaging on manufacturing, according to people familiar with his thinking. That frustration has led to outbursts from the president directed at top aides, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Through the press office, eight senior White House officials including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, and senior adviser Anita Dunn denied that Biden had expressed frustration over the messaging effort around his manufacturing record.

The Friday visit to Auburn Manufacturing in Maine offers Biden a chance to drive his message home. It’s the latest installment of the “Bidenomics” push that is at the center of his 2024 reelection pitch to voters. He’ll be on friendly ground – Democrats have won the New England state in presidential elections for the last three decades.

While at the factory, Biden is expected to sign an executive order intended to incentivize the manufacturing of U.S. inventions domestically, particularly when new breakthrough products were developed using taxpayer dollars. The order will also call on the government to modernize an interagency reporting system for research and development investments and standardize a waiver system that companies can use to manufacture subsidized inventions outside the country.

The factory, which produces heat-resistant fabrics, earlier this year won a legal battle with Chinese competitors – offering Biden a backdrop against which to tout his broader initiative to compete with China, the U.S.’s chief economic rival.

President Biden speaks at Auburn Manufacturing on Friday highlighting federal investments that have helped strengthen Maine’s economy. He also signed an executive order striving to “Invent it here, make it here”. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Increased investment in manufacturing under his watch is a point of pride that Biden hopes will appeal to Americans who’ve been disenchanted by jobs ceded to Asia, where companies have taken advantage of cheaper labor.

“It’s a huge increase in manufacturing capital investments,” said Joe Marchetti, president of Marchetti Development, a commercial real estate company that just completed work on 1.5 million square feet of industrial space in Richmond, Virginia. “In my opinion, it’s been very robust.”

Biden’s policy contrasts with that of his top political opponent, former president Donald Trump, who made his “America First” agenda a central pitch to voters, particularly in the Midwest. Trump leads the 2024 GOP field by a wide margin in polls.

Economists have credited Biden’s policies – including the Chips and Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – with boosting growth in the private sector through federal subsidies.

Yet polling shows Americans are still unhappy with the state of the economy, a reality weighing on Biden’s overall approval ratings. Only 37% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, according to a July CNBC All-America Economic Survey. In a bright spot for Biden, the president’s economic approval rating improved slightly in July, up 3 points from April, mostly driven by gains from Democratic voters, the poll shows.

Kathie Leonard, President and CEO of Auburn Manufacturing Inc., talks with people while they wait for President Biden to arrive at the company in Auburn on Friday. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

In welcome news for the administration, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell this week said staff economists called off a months-long prediction that the U.S. would experience a mild recession this year, soothing concerns that recent growth could be too-good-to-be true.

Inflation, once Biden’s biggest political liability, has now cooled for a year straight. Supply chain issues have eased, and wage gains have risen, even for hourly workers.

Despite continued positive economic news, “it’s going to take some time for people to be convinced that this is a permanent new paradigm,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said at a virtual event with the Roosevelt Institute. “They still want more proof.”

Driving more investment in the U.S. is one of three pillars of “Bidenomics,” according to Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council. The other tenets include empowering workers and promoting competition, Ramamurti added.

The administration has slowly been laying out those pillars in speeches across the country, most recently in Philadelphia, where Biden discussed job growth in the clean energy industry.