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Expert shreds Trump's 'laughable' $18 trillion boast: 'Can't find it anywhere in the data'
trump's $18 trillion number is pure fantasy.
Expert shreds Trump's 'laughable' trillion boast: 'Can't find it anywhere in the data'
— Ben Franklin Warned Us (@herobenfranklin.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T14:05:10.635Z
www.rawstory.com/trump-267509...
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2675096220/
President Donald Trump and his allies continue to push a claim that he secured $18 trillion in foreign investment into the United States — but MS NOW analyst Steve Rattner brought down the reality hammer on Thursday's edition of "Morning Joe."
"So the president loves that $18 trillion figure, Steve," said anchor Willie Geist. "But as you point out, even the White House says it's half of that."
"Yeah, that's the incredible thing, Willie," said Rattner. "Obviously you've noticed how he talks about $18 trillion all the time, over and over and over again. But his own website — this is the most incredible thing, his own website only claims credit for $9.6 trillion. And so you'd think they would at least change the website, or he would stop saying it. But no, they don't do either."
"But in fact, there's no real evidence of that either so far," Rattner added. "You can see that this is a total private investment and all the kinds of things the president is talking about. It's been running consistently at about $1 trillion a quarter. And you can see here that it hasn't really gone up much."
This isn't the only false claim Trump has made about foreign investment, Rattner continued.
"First of all, when he says Biden only got a trillion, Biden got a trillion a quarter, $4 trillion a year during his time in office," he said. "The likelihood of the president producing $18 trillion when our total investment is around $1 trillion, it's kind of laughable. And in fact, if you dig into some of the projects that are in this website, you'll see some of them like some things Apple is doing, like the semiconductor plants in Arizona that I mentioned already happening or what happened anyway, and have nothing to do with anything the president has done."
"So the president loves that $18 trillion figure, Steve," said anchor Willie Geist. "But as you point out, even the White House says it's half of that."
"Yeah, that's the incredible thing, Willie," said Rattner. "Obviously you've noticed how he talks about $18 trillion all the time, over and over and over again. But his own website — this is the most incredible thing, his own website only claims credit for $9.6 trillion. And so you'd think they would at least change the website, or he would stop saying it. But no, they don't do either."
"But in fact, there's no real evidence of that either so far," Rattner added. "You can see that this is a total private investment and all the kinds of things the president is talking about. It's been running consistently at about $1 trillion a quarter. And you can see here that it hasn't really gone up much."
This isn't the only false claim Trump has made about foreign investment, Rattner continued.
"First of all, when he says Biden only got a trillion, Biden got a trillion a quarter, $4 trillion a year during his time in office," he said. "The likelihood of the president producing $18 trillion when our total investment is around $1 trillion, it's kind of laughable. And in fact, if you dig into some of the projects that are in this website, you'll see some of them like some things Apple is doing, like the semiconductor plants in Arizona that I mentioned already happening or what happened anyway, and have nothing to do with anything the president has done."