ANALYSIS — Japan-based SoftBank Group intends to spend $100 billion on projects in the United States during his second term, President-elect Donald Trump said Monday, making it the first company to respond to his offer to trade massive investments for expedited permits.
The announcement came at the start of a wide-ranging news conference at Mar-a-Lago during which Trump also made bold promises and slammed outgoing President Joe Biden, while issuing warnings for Hamas and contending that Turkey, an American ally and NATO member, was behind the ouster of Syria’s former leader.
In short, what might be dubbed “The Trump Show” was back, just over a month before he is scheduled to return to the White House.
The move by SoftBank reflects a growing “confidence in America’s future” by major business figures, Trump told reporters, as the bank’s CEO, Masayoshi Son, stood beside him. The incoming president pressed Son to increase the investment to $200 billion. “I will really try,” the CEO replied with a wide smile and laugh, telling Trump, “I’ll need your support.”
Trump had said on social media Tuesday that any company or individual that invested $1 billion or more in the United States would “receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,” adding: “GET READY TO ROCK!!!”
That was the theme of Trump’s message Monday as he predicted the beginning of a “golden age of America.” Referring to his second term, he at several points spoke of an “optimistic” feeling — and not just at home.
“There’s a light over the entire world,” the president-elect said, while also describing a “horrible” war between Russia and Ukraine and noting the hostages still being held by Hamas as part of its ongoing conflict with Israel.
Here are four takeaways from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago news conference:
‘Big head start’
Trump again predicted that his new administration would hit the ground running, saying that did not happen early in his first administration because he and his team didn’t know many Washington figures.
“We have a big head start,” he said Monday. “In the first term, everyone was fighting me, on all fronts. … In this term, everyone wants to be my friend. I don’t know. My personality changed or something.”
Trump recalled relying on the recommendations of others for Cabinet and senior administration positions eight years ago.
“Some were very good recommendations. We had some great people. [Former U.S. Trade Representative] Bob Lighthizer, I thought was great. We had a lot of great people — but we had some people that I wouldn’t have used, in retrospect,” he said. “And now I know … them better than anybody, better than they know themselves.”
He pledged to, on his first day in office, “implement a rapid series of bold reforms to restore our nation to full prosperity,” without offering specifics. And he brought back an old promise, vowing to terminate 10 “job-killing” federal regulations for every new one enacted during his second term.
Trump also said he plans to sign “many” executive orders on Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration.
‘Should be primaried’
Trump’s overall tone was, for the most part, less bombastic than at previous appearances before reporters.
A prime example came when he indicated he would spare Republican senators who might oppose some of his more contentious choices for Cabinet and senior administration positions.
The GOP standard-bearer, who has remade the party in his image, first said that if Republican senators oppose his intended nominees “for political reasons or stupid reasons,” then “they probably should be primaried.”
But Trump then suggested that senators who have “reasonable or fair” reasons for voting against any of his picks, “or if they really disagree with somebody,” would not be hit with a primary opponent more in line with his “Make America Great Again” movement.
Trump predicted that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic he has tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, would, if confirmed, govern “much less radical than you would think.”
“Otherwise, I wouldn’t have put him there,” the president-elect said, adding that there were “problems” with the country’s health care system. Amid some concerns about Kennedy’s opposition to the polio vaccine, Trump called himself a “big believer in the polio vaccine.”
On mandatory vaccines for school children, Trump declared, “I’m not a big mandate person” — though, once back in office, he would not have direct control over the vaccine decisions of local school districts. But, in deep-red areas, his words on such matters would continue to have ample sway over GOP officials in positions of power.
‘Turkey did an unfriendly takeover ’
In a remarkable moment, Trump appeared to put responsibility on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the recent rebel operation that ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad: “Turkey’s the one behind it,” the president-elect said.
“He’s a very smart guy and he’s very tough,” Trump said in an apparent reference to Erdogan. “But Turkey did an unfriendly takeover without a lot of lives being lost.”
It was a striking clam about an American ally and NATO member, which straddles both Europe and Asia.
On the Middle East, Trump again vowed that “all hell is going to break loose” in Gaza — even though he admitted that much of the territory has already been blown to “smithereens” by Israeli military strikes — unless Hamas frees all remaining hostages by Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.
Asked what that might look like, he said of Hamas leaders: “They’re going to have to determine what that means,” adding a warning: “It’s not going to be pleasant.”
On the flip side, he called for the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to come to the negotiating table. “There’s got to be a deal,” he said without laying out his demands for either side.
Trump slammed Biden for allowing Ukraine — in a reversal — to use American-made missiles to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. He called it a “bad decision” and said Biden should have sought his opinion, adding that he “might” reverse it once back in the Oval Office.
‘Criminal act’
Among the initiatives from his first term that Biden put the kibosh on was Trump’s long-promised wall along the rugged 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
He made a direct plea Monday to the man he is set to succeed next month: “I’m asking today, Joe Biden, to please stop selling the wall,” Trump said, indirectly referring to a provision in last year’s Pentagon policy bill that allowed the Biden administration to sell or donate unused border wall components to states along the boundary.
“They’re trying to sell it for 5 cents on the dollar. And that’s really, that has nothing to do with a smooth transition. That has to do with people really trying to stop our nation,” Trump said. “But we’ll spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall that we already have. And people have already come back to us that have deals at 5 cents and 4 cents, and one guy at 3 cents on the dollar, and they offered to sell it back to us at more money than it costs us to build substantially. Can you believe it?”
Trump offered no specifics on his claims or about the alleged individuals making those offers.
“We’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall we already have,” said the incoming president, who was convicted on state charges of falsifying business records. “It’s almost a criminal act.”
