President Trump signed an executive order calling for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund, tasking his administration with starting an investment vehicle typically found in countries in much better fiscal health than the United States.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said the fund could help finance the purchase of TikTok, the popular social media app that the Trump administration has tried to salvage from a congressionally approved ban.
“I have the right to do that, and we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make, or if we do a partnership with very wealthy people, a lot of options, but we could put that as an example in the fund,” Mr. Trump said of buying TikTok.
The three-paragraph executive order tasks the Treasury and Commerce Departments with generating a plan within 90 days for creating a such a fund. Sovereign wealth funds are popular in oil-rich countries like Norway and Saudi Arabia that can invest large budget surpluses in projects around the world.
But the United States runs persistent, and widening, budget deficits, and it is unclear where the Trump administration could find the money to seed such a fund. Howard Lutnick, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the Commerce Department, suggested that the government could take a stake in companies it does business with.
“If we are going to buy two billion Covid vaccines, maybe we should have some warrants and some equity in these companies and have that grow for the help of the American people,” he said, standing beside Mr. Trump at the White House.
Mr. Trump discussed the idea during the presidential campaign, floating the possibility that money collected from imposing new tariffs could be invested in projects around the country. The Biden administration had also studied the possibility of creating a fund to make investments in specific strategic industries.
Standing up a national investment fund would require resolving a series of questions about how the government money is controlled and which projects or companies receive it. The executive order tasks administration officials with figuring out whether Congress would need to pass new legislation in order to create such a fund.
If the Trump administration ultimately moves forward with creating a sovereign wealth fund, it would be the latest step to expand the federal government’s role in the American economy. Under both Mr. Trump and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., officials in Washington have been much more proactive in supporting American companies, often at the expense of foreign competitors, ending a decades-long embrace of free trade and open investment among American officials.
Mr. Trump said during his remarks that he would like the American wealth fund to be among the largest in the world, many of which exceed $1 trillion.
“And I think in a short period of time, we’d have one of the biggest funds. And you know, some of some of them are pretty large,” Mr. Trump said. “So, that’s a big deal, huh?”
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