In a nutshell, it mistook the nature of labor folks are used to here and its costs. Indeed wildly different from China and elsewhere.
The alternate take is that the whole deal was made in bad faith and FoxConn was hoping to collect subsidies and line its pockets. This version of events has some precedent[1]. It's especially hard to believe that FoxConn didn't know about US labor when this same situation played out in Pennsylvania in 2013[2].
[1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/foxconns-history-of-broken...
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-foxconns...
So that leaves either bad faith, or they are just abjectly incompetent. I can't really see any other options. Or, again, am I way off base?
Especially one that is a specialist in harvesting laborers from all corners of the world. I can only imagine selecting the right labor force has to be their main competences.
My smartphone will never be assembled in the US or Germany.
If you look from the outside, as a society we are using a lot of our best brains for very frivolous things. I wish for a more efficient way of using our minds!
(No relation to the company, though I did once have a very nice chat with Todd Weaver).
And to the larger point: I agree completely that politicians opening their mouths about jobs (and also about anything else, IMO) is bad faith bullshit.