These empty promises are how we ended up electing Trump the first time and it's virtually guaranteeing that we'll elect him a second time.
Rural Kentucky is in horrible shape and a lot of people here were placing hope in this, much like they have so many other empty promises from their leaders, so at least stop acting surprised when the consequences show themselves.
He means that companies exist to make a profit, supply customers and their needs and to pay employees.
If they make a promise to spend money and economic conditions change to the extent that they would lose money, it makes sense to not continue with that commitment.
Comparing a company making a profit with a politician trying to get elected is not fair.
That's not how promises or commitments work. It's true that that describes the behavior of profit maximization engines, but the language of your justification implies wrongdoing.
> Rural Kentucky is in horrible shape and a lot of people here were placing hope in this,
"Rural KY" is not all that big, a couple million people, if that, and solely exists to the rest of the US for low-key victim-blaming election cycle human interest dreck.
These news stories about manufacturing expansion are all about development just outside large towns and cities, like bowling green, louisville, cincinnati, ... and will draw similar demographic than if they were in Texas, Georgia, or North Carolina.
And fwiw, just nitpicking, "rural ky" can also include the bluegrass, and that's just plain comfortably rich.
Sometimes investment makes sense, and then things change and it doesn't make sense anymore. That's fair, isn't it?