It was barely afternoon when Donald Trump came down from the elevator in Trump Tower with Japanese billionaire and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to announce the company’s intention to invest $50 billion in United States companies, and turn creating 50,000 new jobs.
After meeting with SoftBank’s CEO and tech investor Masayoshi Son in his office at Trump Tower, President-elect Donald Trump descended to the lobby and actively sought out the press to make his latest jobs growth announcement.
“We will invest in new companies,” Son said during an impromptu press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower.
Softbank isn’t a household word in the U.S., but its holdings are vast.
Son, who became a billionaire through investments in Japan and China, is in the midst of raising a $100 billion investment fund. But he’s had mixed results in the U.S. since Softbank bought a controlling interest in Sprint for $21.6 billion, and lost ground to telecom rivals such as T-Mobile.
Sprint shares rose sharply 4.5%, to $8.42, in mid-afternoon trading Tuesday.
Shortly after arriving downstairs, Trump said ” This is Masayoshi of SoftBank in Japan and he’s just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 job. He’s one of the great men of industry so I just want to thank you.” The crowd gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower cheered as Trump returned to the elevator. Masayoshi confirmed Trump’s numbers by telling the reporters “So we are going to invest $50 billion into the US, and commit to creating 50,000 new jobs”, he stated as he held up what appeared to be a PowerPoint slide of part of a presentation that he was reviewing with Trump.
Trump followed up the announcement with a series of Tweets confirming the deal, and also announced that Masayoshi said he would never have taken the steps to invest this kind of money in the United States if Trump had not been elected as president.
Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016
Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016
This latest job creation announcement comes as just last week, President-elect Donald Trump negotiated a deal with Carrier, who was set to move their manufacturing plants to Mexico, in which they agreed to keep 1,000 jobs in the United States.
Trump made job creation and economic growth one of the cornerstones of his campaign, and before even being sworn into office, he appears to be delivering on his promises big time. Detractors are in overdrive trying to criticize Trump for making policy decisions before he is officially commander-in-chief, and while technically Barack Obama is still in charge of the country, but it’s going to be hard to slam the President-elect for bringing new jobs into the country only a month after winning the election.
If Trump can negotiate the promise of 50,000 new jobs before the end of the business day, I have to wonder what he will be able to accomplish when he has “a pen and phone”, as Obama once put it, and the support of a Republican congress.
The full video of Trump and Masayoshi’s announcement can be viewed below.