President Donald Trump is going to Japan and South Korea to promote an epic financial windfall — at least $900 billion in investments for U.S. factories, a natural gas pipeline and other projects.
Japan and South Korea made those financial commitments in August to try to get Trump to ratchet down his planned tariff rates from 25% to 15%. But as the U.S. president is set to depart Friday night for Asia, the pledges are more of a loose end than money in the bank for American industry.
Japan pledged $550 billion in investments, but it wants the money to benefit its own companies, making that a condition in a memorandum released in September. As of Monday, Japan has a new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who has expressed respect for Trump but is operating in an untested coalition government.
South Korea offered $350 billion — but wants a swap line for U.S. dollars to facilitate its investments and seeks to fund the transactions through loan guarantees. Otherwise, the commitment could sink its own economy.
The investment arrangements are unusual for trade frameworks, and Trump maintains that he will personally direct how the money is spent, enabling him to pick winners and losers. Weeks of talks have yet to produce any breakthroughs on how the investments would go forward even though both nations want to preserve their relationship with America.
Other news we’re following:
- Trump’s favorability has fallen among Hispanics: The October survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 25% of Hispanic adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Trump, down from 44% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before Trump took office in January. The percentage of Hispanic adults who say the country is going in the wrong direction has also increased slightly over the past few months, from 63% in March to 73% now.
- Trump abruptly ends trade talks with Canada over TV ads: Trump said the television ad opposing U.S. tariffs misstated the facts and called it “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions. The post on Trump’s social media site came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs.
- Trump won’t immediately send federal agents to San Francisco: Trump says he’s backing off a planned surge of federal agents into San Francisco after speaking to Mayor Daniel Lurie. Lurie said the city was making progress in reducing crime, and Trump agreed to let San Francisco keep trying on its own for now.