Pennsylvania city divided over Trump as it reels from economic whiplash [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Sat 25 Oct 2025 08.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 25 Oct 2025 09.04 EDT
It was set to be the most expensive project that the beaten-down manufacturing sector of Erie, Pennsylvania, had seen in decades. In a blighted corner of town, a startup planned a $300m plant that would turn plastic waste into fuel for steel factories.
Neighborhood advocates in Erie’s impoverished east side hoped the facility would provide the jobs and prosperity they needed. Environmentalists decried the pollution they expected the plant to bring. Unions got ready for what they hoped would be hundreds of jobs created by its construction, with more to come once it opened.
And then it was over. Mitch Hecht, founder of the company pursuing the project, announced that a Department of Energy loan crucial to the plant’s funding was put on hold as a result of Donald Trump’s policies, which “had a severe and immediate impact on our ability to move forward”.
It was the latest bout of economic whiplash to strike the county on north-west Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie shoreline, just months after its voters helped return Trump to the White House. Those who backed the president say they are sticking with him, even as his administration’s spending cuts have upended projects and budgets and tariffs have created new uncertainties for businesses.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/25/erie-pennsylvania-trump-policies
The "but give him more time" MAGats are brain dead.
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