Tariffs and trade policies have spurred about $8 trillion in business and manufacturing investment commitments, the president says.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump hosted chief executive officers and industry leaders at Cross Hall in the White House for an “Invest in America” event on April 30 to celebrate trillions of dollars in business development and manufacturing investments.
“The entire Trump economic agenda is about making it easier to do business in America, to create jobs in America, to hire American workers, and to build your factories here in America, not in China, or any other country,” Trump said.
The president was flanked by high-tech displays, including an Anduril drone model, emphasizing his administration’s push to rebuild American industry.
More than a dozen executives on hand for the event touted their companies’ recent commitments, totaling more than $2 trillion collectively and described as historic by the Trump administration, and sought to encourage more manufacturing development projects in the United States.
Trump said his trade policies, which include 10 percent baseline tariffs on nations worldwide—and a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods—are spurring domestic manufacturing initiatives.
A tariff wall for the pharmaceutical industry is also in the works, he said.
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“You build here, you have no tariffs,” he said.
Though critics of the U.S. tariffs suggest they could prove inflationary or cause supply chain disruptions, those who spoke at the event were in favor of the president’s agenda.
Larry Culp, GE Aerospace chairman and CEO, said proposed reciprocal levies are “helping ensure that the U.S. aerospace industry, one of our biggest net exporters, continues to lead the world in innovation.”
Trump said approximately $8 trillion in investments in U.S. industries were secured in the first 100 days of his second presidency.
That figure includes $500 billion from Apple to develop manufacturing and training, $500 billion from NVIDIA for artificial intelligence infrastructure, and $500 billion combined from OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, among other deals.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of Softbank, said during the event: “I tried to commit $100 billion, and President Trump said, ‘Oh Masa, go for more.’ So, we did.”
Other businesses are also moving operations onshore, according to administration officials.
“Investments from the biggest companies and countries in the world are pouring in under this president,” Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, told reporters during a briefing on April 29.
“The business community is bullish on America because President Trump is back in charge.”
The capital influx is expected to generate more than 451,000 new jobs in high-paying sectors, she said.
Trump has championed high-tech manufacturing developments, calling the domestic production of semiconductors and computer chips a matter of national security.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said the backing of the administration will allow the AI industry to proliferate in the United States and prove beneficial to a multitude of businesses.
“This industry is going to enable a whole bunch of other industries,” he said. “What we now call the AI infrastructure is going to revolutionize every industry that we know.”
