From Iowan steel to Alaskan gas, Trump delivers string of economic deals on campaign trail

As Nov. 3 approaches and early voters beging to make their selections, President Donald Trump is taking the opportunity to highlight economic progress under his leadership. At the end of September, Trump announced that a $15 billion steel complex would be built in Iowa, creating 1,750 permanent jobs and up to 6,000 construction jobs.

"Today, we're thrilled to announce that Mesabi Metallics will be building the largest steel plant in American history in the great state of Iowa."

The White House said the steel plant is estimated to generate $95 billion in U.S. economic output through the first decade the plant is operational.

A few days later, on Oct. 2, Trump announced that a U.S. trade deal with South Korea would include an $8.4 billion investment in producing crude oil from an aging oil field, Reuters reported. The outlet noted that Seoul’s industry minister told the country’s state-supported news agency that he was surprised by Trump’s claim.

Trump also unveiled that South Korea would invest $200 billion in U.S. projects, including $54 billion for a liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline in Alaska, though the details are not “set in stone,” Reuters reported. Trump said the massive investment included money for eight large-scale nuclear power plants, the LNG pipeline, and a 6-gigawatt power generation facility in Texas.

Trump stacking up the claims to programmatic success

Trump kept the favorable economic news rolling last week when he announced a multibillion-dollar deal with a defense tech company that involves the U.S. government taking a 40% ownership stake in the firm that owns a new submarine plant, Fox News reported. The deal, however, rests on the firm, Anduril, proving it can build the Navy-certified components for the job.

The government is using the Defense Production Act and the Pentagon’s Industrial Base Fund to acquire a stake in the company, which was recently formed. A U.S. official told Fox News that the deal would make the U.S. a “minority, non-control” owner in an investment designed to secure "tangible ownership and long-term value for American taxpayers."

Trump on Tuesday announced that Taiwan had agreed to buy 30% of LNG from a planned pipeline in Alaska for the next 20 years, Bloomberg News reported. Taipei, however, has stressed that the contract isn’t completed yet.

Trump made that announcement at a campaign rally in Alaska for Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, where the president also pardoned two diesel mechanics who pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act. Zachary Czubak and Patrick Fleming pleaded guilty in 2022 to federal charges that they illegally removed equipment that controlled air pollution in at least 37 vehicles between July 2019 and 2020, The Hill reported.

“They wanted to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine, how sick,” Trump said.

“The concept is that if you allow people to fix the engines, they’re going to take all of the environmental crap that makes it bad, makes it expensive, that they’re going to undo that. And when you undo that, you therefore send fumes into the air, so we’re going to put them in jail for ten years,” he added.

“We’re not criminals [...] we want to help Alaskans" pardoned diesel mechanic says

Fleming attended the rally and thanked Trump for the pardon.

“This means the world to me,” Fleming said on stage. “We’re not criminals. We’re not trying to hurt anybody. We want to help Alaskans. We want to help people with diesel trucks, with vehicles across the world.”  

Trump has previously pardoned nine people convicted of similar Clean Air Act violations, with the White House claiming the convicted were targeted by previous administrations who overzealously enforced the law, The Hill reported.