“I'm not here to declare victory on the economy,” President Joe Biden said as he began to wrap up his July 6 remarks at Flex LTD in West Columbia.  “I'm here to say we have a plan that's turning things around quickly and we have a lot more work to do.”

The president, who flew into Columbia Metropolitan Airport for a quick visit to the nearby manufacturing facility, was in town to tout his “Bidenomics” policies to stimulate the economy and spotlight a $60 million investment from Enphase Energy to open six new clean energy manufacturing lines in the U.S., spurred, the president said, by his Inflation Reduction Act.

The investment is set to create 1,800 jobs throughout the country. Enphase is partnering with Flex as part of the effort, with the expanded production potentially adding up to 600 new jobs in South Carolina, according to The White House.

“We're creating jobs here and exporting American products. Products, not jobs,” Biden said. “That's the story here in South Carolina.”

Enphase’s commitment is part of what The White House is reporting as more than $500 million in investments by companies into manufacturing and clean energy since the beginning of the Biden administration.

The president arrived in West Columbia after several of the candidates seeking to challenge him as the 2024 Republican nominee have made their way through Lexington County in recent months. During their visits, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy all spent time criticizing Biden’s handling of the economy.

The president pushed back against such criticism during his July 6 visit, defining his own economic policies by comparing them to an idea he said doesn’t work: trickle-down economics.

“When I came to office, we had a fundamental decision to make — would we continue down the trickle down economic path, a policy that has failed us time and again,” the president said.”It grew inequality, saw jobs shipped overseas, towns hollowed out. When I ran, I promised we would not continue down the trickle-down path. Here’s the simple truth about trickle-down economics: It represented a moment when we walked away from how this country was built. ‘Bidenomics’ is just another way of saying ‘restoring the American Dream.’”

He touted that his own policies are aimed at helping Americans in all socioeconomic demographics and in all parts of the country, from the populated coasts to the rural Heartland.

“Over 13 million new jobs since I've been elected to office,” Biden said, “more jobs than any president has ever created in the first two years. 800,000 manufacturing jobs, including 14,000 in this state alone.”

Not everyone sees the president as having been key to the state’s economic gains in recent years, with Republican Gov. Henry McMaster crediting the people of South Carolina in a statement released in response to Biden’s visit.

“South Carolina is red hot,” the governor said, “with a booming economy, a growing population, and a quality of life unmatched by any state. Our prominent role on the national political stage has seen two presidential visits to our state in the last six days. Since January 2017, we’ve announced 82,000 new jobs with $33 billion in new capital investment. Our success originates from our people, whose values, faith, patriotism, and work ethic are widely known across the globe.”

The S.C. Freedom Caucus, a hardline conservative group of state House members vice-chaired by Lexington-based state Rep. RJ May, was more direct in its criticism.

“President Biden and the ‘Republican’ establishment in Columbia have failed the Palmetto State by putting the interest of climate activists ahead of the needs of South Carolinians,” the caucus said in a statement.

“Whether it’s Biden’s $369 BILLION for the left’s radical Green New Deal priorities found in the so-called ‘Inflation Reeducation Act’ or the General Assembly’s $1.3 BILLION + in taxpayer money for woke foreign electric car companies, the results are the same – South Carolina taxpayers are subsidizing liberal DEI and ESG policies while being forced to be ever more dependent on Chinese Communist Party battery manufacturing.”

For his own part, the president said his policies are actively pushing to undo gains made by China in relation to the U.S. in research and development and infrastructure before his administration.

Biden also sought to localize the impact of the Infrastructure Bill he pushed to have passed, zeroing in on one particularly annoying local interstate interchange.

“How many years have we talked about fixing ‘Malfunction Junction’?” he asked the crowd, referring to the conglomerated interchange between Interstates 20, 26 and 126 coming into Columbia. Carolina Crossroads, an ongoing $2.08 billion state infrastructure project, is in the process of reworking the area that has long frustrated Midlands commuters.

“Now, thanks to [Rep.] Jim Clyburn and help from the infrastructure law, it’s finally going to get fixed,” he said, giving credit to the longtime member of Congress whose influence helped push Biden to a win in the S.C. presidential primary and on to the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Tune in as I deliver remarks on how Bidenomics is spurring manufacturing investments and good-paying jobs across the country. https://t.co/q9bfnqJw6V

— President Biden (@POTUS) July 6, 2023