President Donald Trump touted tens of billions of dollars in new energy and semiconductor investments Wednesday, seeking to highlight his economic agenda just hours before an Arizona midterm rally and amid continued voter frustration over the cost of living.
Trump said Taiwan had committed to buying $70 billion to $80 billion worth of liquefied natural gas from the proposed Alaska LNG project over 20 years, and investing up to $4.4 billion in its development.
Separately, he announced what he described as a $21 billion investment involving semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries to build two new manufacturing facilities in Malta, New York, with capital provided by Japan.
Trump's Truth Social announcements come as the president faces significant voter dissatisfaction over the economy and cost of living. An Associated Press-NORC poll released Wednesday found that just 17 percent of U.S. adults approved of Trump's handling of the cost of living. A recent Reuters/Ipsos survey found about 78 percent of Americans blamed Trump administration policies, including tariffs and the conflict with Iran, for rising prices.
That frustration was further fueled Wednesday morning when the Labor Department reported that inflation accelerated in September. Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent from August and 3.7 percent from a year earlier, up from 3.4 percent in August. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3 percent for the month and 2.6 percent annually. Gasoline prices jumped 9.1 percent in September and accounted for more than half of the monthly increases.
The report was the final Consumer Price Index reading before the November 3 midterms.
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Trump Touts Foreign Investment and Thousands of US Jobs
Trump nevertheless cast the investment announcements as evidence that his trade policies are delivering major projects and jobs in the United States.
Trump said Taiwan's Alaska LNG commitment represented about 30 percent of the project's output for the next 20 years. Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs confirmed that state-owned CPC Corp. plans to purchase 6 million metric tons of LNG annually and could invest up to $4.4 billion in the project. However, the ministry said specific investment arrangements, equity stakes and other terms remain subject to negotiations and commercial contract procedures.
Reuters reported that it had not said whether a binding sale-and-purchase agreement had been signed.
"Specific investment arrangements, equity stakes and related terms will be determined through subsequent negotiations and commercial contract procedures," Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement.
Trump also said South Korea's previously announced involvement amounted to a $50 billion infrastructure investment, though Seoul has previously said its participation in the Alaska project had not been finalized.
The president said the GlobalFoundries investment would create 27,000 construction and supply-chain jobs, plus more than 1,000 highly skilled manufacturing jobs in New York. The jobs would be tied to two new semiconductor manufacturing facilities planned for Malta, north of Albany.
Trump called the Alaska LNG development “the GREATEST Project in Alaska History,” adding that it “only happens with me in the White House.” He also hailed the New York investment as an “ALL-AROUND HUGE WIN FOR AMERICA,” while describing himself as a “great Businessman President” running “the Greatest Economy in the World.”
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Sam Wilson.