Donald Trump claimed to have notched up the first economic success of his forthcoming second presidency on Monday by announcing a $100bn investment by the Japanese company, SoftBank, which he said would be completed during his four-year presidency.
The president-elect has a history of headline-grabbing job announcements – not all of which pan out successfully.
During Trump’s first presidency, he announced a $10bn investment by the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, Foxxcon, that he promised would create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin. In the event, the company drastically scaled back its outlay and created little more than 1,000 jobs.
But on Monday, flanked by Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s CEO, at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump vowed that the fresh investment would result in 100,000 new jobs, mainly in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. He trumpeted the move as “a monumental demonstration of confidence in America’s future” – while suggesting it had been secured as a result of his victory in last month’s presidential election.
“He [Son] is doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country since the election and many other people are also coming in with tremendous amounts of money,” said Trump, who spent the election campaign lambasting the Biden administration’s supposed failure to combat the effects of inflation, which polls indicated was a key voter concern.
He said the investment would “ensure that artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and other industries of tomorrow are built created and grown right here in the USA”.
Son, who announced a $50bn American investment project at the time of Trump’s 2016 election win, said he had doubled the sum this time because the Trump was “a double-down president”.
“I would really like to celebrate the great victory of President Trump and my confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory,” he said. “This is double [the amount] of last time … because President Trump is a double down president.”
Trump responded by suggesting – apparently in jest – that Son double his current commitment to $200bn. Son laughed and merely vowed to “make this [the current investment] happen”.
Son’s 2016 commitment came with a pledge to create 50,000 jobs. It is unclear if those jobs were in fact produced as a result, Reuters reported.
Nor is it clear how SoftBank plans to fund the investment. The company had $29bn in cash and cash equivalents in its most recent earnings report last September.
after newsletter promotion
At Monday’s announcement, Son voiced the hope that Trump’s second presidency would “bring the world into peace again”, adding: “I think he will actually make it happen.”
Later, taking questions from reporters, Trump repeated his vow to bring a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine – reiterating his previous claim that the war between the two countries would never have happened if he had remained president.
Asked if he would use his relationship with President Vladimir Putin of Russia to pressure him to give up the recently deposed Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, who has been granted exile status by the Russian leader, Trump replied that he had not thought about it.