Twice this week, President Trump held White House events announcing huge economic projects in states with close Senate races. Both times, his team called the deals done. Both times, within days, the people who’d have to make them happen said they weren’t.
A $15 billion steel plant in Iowa still has no land or permits. A $54 billion South Korean investment in an Alaska gas pipeline hasn’t been agreed to by South Korea. On Friday, Trump said he didn’t jump the gun.
What happened with the Iowa steel plant?
On Monday, Trump hosted an Oval Office event for a new Mesabi Metallics steel plant in Lee County, with Iowa Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson and Gov. Kim Reynolds on hand. The pitch was thousands of jobs and making Iowa the country’s second-biggest steel producer.
A reporter asked how firm the deal was. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick didn’t hedge.
I think this deal is done. This deal is done. They’ve already worked it out. That’s why we’re all together with the president. The president doesn’t bring people together unless it’s a done deal.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
Trump added: “They’ve already started building.” The next day, Reynolds called an emergency special session of the Iowa Legislature to deal with tax incentives for the project, the same issue Lutnick had just called settled. Quad Cities station KWQC reported the project hadn’t acquired land or applied for permits, and Lee County officials said they didn’t have details.
Some Iowans are comparing it to Foxconn, the $10 billion Wisconsin factory Trump announced at a White House event in 2017 that never got built. A top Iowa Republican told CNN, anonymously, “It sounds too good to be true, and it just might be.” Supporters point out that Reynolds has been working on the deal for months.
What happened with the Alaska LNG pipeline deal?
On Wednesday, Trump announced South Korea would put more than $50 billion into the long-stalled Alaska LNG project, standing next to Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican in a competitive race. Sullivan’s office called it a “historic $54 billion investment by South Korea.” Lutnick said it would “change Alaska” and “change geopolitics.”
South Korea’s trade minister, Kim Jung-kwan, said otherwise. “Putting figures or using definitive language goes far beyond what was agreed,” he said, according to the Yonhap news agency. He said Seoul was still reviewing whether to take part. The pipeline would run about 800 miles from the North Slope to southern Alaska and has been talked about for decades.
Asked about it Friday before leaving for a rally in Alabama, Trump said:
Well, I didn’t jump the gun. I mean, they were there and they were represented. And let’s see. If they don’t want to do it, that’s OK with me. I’ll just charge you more.
President Trump
Why does the timing matter?
Iowa and Alaska both have Senate races that could decide control of the chamber, and the election is a month away. Big announcements make for good local headlines. If the projects stall, voters will likely find out long after November 3.
It fits a pattern this fall. Trump has promised a $5,000 payment to every adult if Republicans keep Congress, and late Friday he announced $90 Medicare payments to more than 20 million seniors.
The BeezLoop Take
Presidents announce projects before the ink is dry all the time, and some of these deals may still happen. Iowa’s governor has clearly been working on the steel plant for months, and the Alaska pipeline has real backers. That’s not the problem.
The problem is calling them done when they aren’t, and the exact words matter. “This deal is done” and “They’ve already started building” were simply not true on Monday. “Goes far beyond what was agreed” came from the government that’s supposed to write the check. When a foreign trade minister has to publicly correct the White House two days later, the announcement wasn’t premature. It was wrong.
Trump’s Friday answer told you how seriously to take it: if South Korea doesn’t want to invest, “I’ll just charge you more.” That’s a tariff threat, not a pipeline.
For voters in Iowa and Alaska, the fair test is simple. Ask in a year whether there’s a steel mill in Lee County and a signed South Korean commitment to the Alaska pipeline. Foxconn is the reminder of what happens when nobody asks.
Also on BeezLoop: Border security money is paying for Trump’s ads.
Sources: CNN · KWQC · Anchorage Daily News · Korea Times
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