As concerns mount about the economic fallout from steep U.S. tariffs on key trade partners, President Trump is highlighting what he says is a major benefit of stepped-up import duties: corporate investment in the U.S.
The White House on Wednesday unveiled a website to track U.S. and foreign companies that have announced investments in U.S. manufacturing and other projects since the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term. The so-called investment tracker currently lists 47 projects involving 50 companies based on the size of their financial commitments.
“Since President Donald J. Trump returned to office, his America First economic policies have sparked trillions of dollars in new investment in U.S. manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure,” the site states.
Technology and AI projects top the list of investment commitments. Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle have jointly pledged to spend $500 billion on an initiative, dubbed Project Stargate, to build AI data centers across the U.S. Apple in February also said it plans to spend more than $500 billion building new factories and expanding existing plants in nine states. Nvidia said earlier this month it will spend up to half a trillion dollars building domestic factories so it can make its AI supercomputers in the U.S.
The White House had teased the investment tracker in a press release on Tuesday listing new investments in the U.S. during Mr. Trump’s second term, referring to the planned spending as the “Trump effect.”
The new website’s debut came as federal data on Wednesday showed that the U.S. economy shrank 0.3% in the first three months of the year, heightening concerns that Mr. Trump’s protectionist trade policies are weighing on growth.
Mr. Trump has touted tariffs as a way to boost the U.S. manufacturing sector, secure fairer trade deals with other countries and generate federal revenue.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
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