Joe Biden visited Maine on Friday for his first trip

President Joe Biden visited Maine on Friday for his first trip to the state since winning the White House, offering a defense of his economic policies and signing an executive order intended to boost domestic manufacturing nationwide. At Auburn Manufacturing Inc., a maker of heat and fire-resistant textiles and fabrics, the president said wages are growing faster than inflation, which is at its lowest rate in two years. “We now have more jobs than we had before the pandemic,” Biden said. “People are coming off the sidelines -- unemployment is down and so is inflation.” The president did not mention interest rates, which reached a 22-year high this week. Introducing Biden, Kathie Leonard, the company’s founder and president, credited his policies during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as legislation signed during his first two years in office to invest in infrastructure, semiconductor production, and domestic energy development. “Biden’s American Rescue Plan helped keep businesses like us afloat, it helped reignite the U.S. economy,” Leonard said. “His focus on domestic manufacturing has increased demand for products like ours.” “incentivizing-traffickers” ,