Washington: President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday plans for South Korea to invest roughly $54 billion in a long-planned natural gas project in Alaska, alongside plans for a 6-gigawatt power generation facility in Texas and eight large-scale nuclear power plants across the US.
The Alaska project, long backed by Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, comes as he faces a competitive re-election contest in the state.
Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office with Sullivan.
“He's got my ear, and he's had my ear for a long time on Alaska,” Trump said. The president added that “all these energy projects are all mine, and I got 'em done working with Dan Sullivan.”
The investment plans are part of a broader $350 billion commitment made under a 2025 trade deal with South Korea. The agreement included $150 billion for shipbuilding and $200 billion for strategic investments in the US in exchange for lower US tariffs on South Korean cars, auto parts and other products.
Trump credited his tariffs for making the investment possible, saying, “our trade agreement with South Korea, they have to invest hundreds of billions of dollars.”
“For doing that, I reduced their tariffs to 15 per cent. But they paid to get them reduced,” Trump said. “And, part of that money is going into this project.”
The broader investment package includes the Alaska liquefied natural gas pipeline, a 6-gigawatt gas-fired power generation facility in Texas and eight large-scale nuclear power plants.
The Alaska project consists of an 807-mile (1,300-kilometre) natural gas pipeline connecting Alaska's North Slope to a liquefied natural gas export terminal in southern Alaska. The White House said the project would eventually reduce energy costs for Alaska residents by providing a reliable and secure supply.
Officials said during the Oval Office event that building the pipeline would take three years and exports of liquefied natural gas would begin two years after that, but that timeline depends on financing coming through fully.
Alaska Senator Sullivan described the pipeline as the state's most important project.
“The sky is the limit when we get this project done,” Sullivan said.
“Mr. President, this one is huge for Alaska,” Sullivan added, saying he had been working on it ‘relentlessly’.
The investment announcement comes as Trump seeks to highlight major projects linked to his administration's trade and economic policies ahead of the November midterm elections.
Trump made a similar announcement on Monday for a $15 billion steel plant to be built in Iowa by a Minnesota company owned by an Indian industrial conglomerate.
The Iowa project is in a state where Republican Representative Ashley Hinson is in a competitive US Senate contest with Democratic state Representative Josh Turek for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Joni Ernst.
Alaska and Iowa are among the states where Democrats are targeting Republican-held Senate seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Sullivan, a two-term senator, is facing a challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman.
Trump has said he plans to spend much of the next 30 days on the road campaigning ahead of the midterms, beginning with trips to Texas, Alabama, Ohio and Nebraska.
He has also acknowledged that Republicans could face difficulties retaining control of both chambers of Congress, saying his administration has not done enough to promote its accomplishments.
“I've done a very bad job of explaining,” Trump said during an event at the White House before the Alaska announcement.
The South Korean investment announcement is the latest in a series of projects Trump has highlighted as evidence of the economic impact of his administration's policies.(With inputs from AP via PTI, Reuters, whitehouse.gov)