Trump Promised a Foreign Investment Boom. It’s Getting Harder to Deliver.

Over the course of 2025, President Trump made bold claims about the amount of investment pouring into the United States from foreign countries. With his administration putting steep tariffs on imports, he argued, foreign companies would be forced to locate their factories in America for access to the U.S. market.

Mr. Trump claimed investment numbers that increased from $17 trillion last September, to $18 trillion in December, to $21 trillion. That would amount to two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product, and is far more than the White House ever enumerated on its website tracking the commitments.

Nevertheless, some of that investment was promised by U.S. trading partners who were looking for ways to appease the president in the face of stiff tariffs. Mr. Trump extracted about $5 trillion in commitments, over the course of up to 10 years, from the European Union, Asia and the Persian Gulf. If that money materialized, it would constitute an overwhelming influx of capital, nearly double the average rate of investment America received from 2015 through 2024.

Investment deals can take years to close, meaning that definitive evidence will take time to show up. For now, the early data contains notes of both promise and concern. Factors other than federal policy probably contributed to an apparent surge in new foreign investment last year, while a broader measure suggests that, on the whole, foreign investors are treading cautiously.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/business/economy/trump-foreign-investment.html