Trump touts 2 firms' creation of U.S. jobs

But 8,000 part of a previous pledge

President-elect Donald Trump appears with tech billionaire Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 6 after Son pledged a $50 billion investment in the U.S. by his SoftBank Group that would result in 50,000 jobs.
President-elect Donald Trump appears with tech billionaire Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 6 after Son pledged a $50 billion investment in the U.S. by his SoftBank Group that would result in 50,000 jobs.

President-elect Donald Trump renewed a pledge Thursday that his administration will "buy American and hire American," as he touted Sprint Inc.'s commitment a day earlier to create or bring back 5,000 jobs that the wireless carrier said are part of broader U.S. hiring plans previously announced by Japan-based parent SoftBank Group Corp.

Trump's morning tweet stated: "My administration will follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American! #USA." It followed news that fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, continuing a nearly two-year trend that suggests his administration will inherit a solid job market in the U.S.

On Wednesday, Trump celebrated the planned creation of thousands of jobs by Sprint, which issued a statement about them the same day, and another 3,000 jobs by OneWeb -- both companies in which tech billionaire Masayoshi Son is a dominant investor.

Speaking from the front door of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump did not outright mention Son's previous commitment but used the opportunity once again to declare a victory for U.S. workers. The Trump transition team treated the jobs as a preview of things to come.

[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect’s career + list of appointments so far]

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Thursday.

For these particular jobs, Trump basically took a bow for the second time. The jobs were part of a public commitment made Dec. 6 by Son as he emerged from the elevator bank after a meeting at Trump Tower in New York. Son, known informally as "Masa," pledged that companies controlled by his company SoftBank would invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 jobs.

"Our announcement yesterday was part of Masa's 50,000 jobs commitment and it was intended to show that we are now working to help fulfill the commitment," a Sprint spokesman said in an emailed statement Thursday.

The jobs will be in customer care, sales and other functions, Sprint said in a statement Wednesday. The company still is determining the location of the jobs, which it expects to fill by the end of March 2018, Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint said. Sprint had about 30,000 employees as of the end of March, down from 38,000 in 2013, when Son acquired the company.

"The 5,000 jobs are new jobs that Sprint is creating or bringing back to the U.S.," Sprint Chief Executive Officer Marcelo Claure said on Twitter. "Great news for the country."

Trump disputed the notion that the jobs already had been announced, telling reporters later Wednesday that "I just spoke with the head person. He said because of me they're doing 5,000 jobs in this country." He referred reporters to his spokesman, Hope Hicks, for details. She didn't respond to a request for comment.

Son's vow to invest in the U.S. and create jobs helped provide Trump with evidence he's producing more work for Americans. It also scored points for Sprint, which was rebuffed by President Barack Obama's administration on a previous merger attempt. Son saw a marquee deal to merge Sprint with rival T-Mobile fail when federal regulators opposed combining two of the four largest mobile-telecom companies in the United States. Some analysts believe that a Trump administration would be more likely to approve telecom mergers

Trump also repeated an announcement earlier this month that OneWeb Ltd., a satellite startup backed by SoftBank, will create almost 3,000 jobs in Florida over the next four years. That number consists of about 1,200 jobs at OneWeb, plus about 1,800 jobs at suppliers that work directly with the startup and include Qualcomm Inc., Hughes Network Systems and Honeywell International Inc., Greg Wyler, founder of OneWeb, said in an interview.

"Masa's meeting with Trump invigorated and inspired Masa to increase investment in OneWeb and accelerate OneWeb's growth," Wyler said. In September, October and November, the U.S. economy gained an average of 176,000 nonfarm jobs a month, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Son linked his investment to meeting with Trump. "Earlier this month I met with President-elect Trump and shared my commitment to investing and creating jobs in the U.S.," he said in a statement. "This is the first step in that commitment."

Trump also twice praised the Japanese billionaire in December, signaling that Son might have better access to the White House. This could be helpful for Son's other business plans.

Sprint has struggled since 2013, when Son hinted he might try to buy T-Mobile, only to abandon the effort after signals from the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department that they could oppose the move. While T-Mobile has rebounded, becoming the country's fastest-growing carrier, Sprint has cut costs and mortgaged assets to contain its debt.

OneWeb is developing small, low-orbit satellites to provide wireless Internet access in remote areas. The company raised $1.2 billion from SoftBank and others this month. The Trump administration's interest in space accelerated OneWeb's plans, said a spokesman, Charles Palmer.

Consumer and business confidence has surged since the election, reflecting optimism about Trump's pledges to boost growth, keep the labor market churning, cut taxes and ease regulations. Trump has meanwhile scored political victories as president-elect by appearing to persuade individual companies to keep or create jobs in the U.S. and by intervening in Pentagon contracts.

Trump struck a deal with United Technologies Corp.'s Carrier unit last month to keep about 800 manufacturing jobs at a furnace factory in Indianapolis. Trump had vowed during his campaign that he would force the company to abandon plans to move the jobs to Mexico. While about 1,000 Carrier jobs still are leaving the state for Mexico, the company will receive about $7 million in incentives from state taxpayers for the positions it is keeping in Indianapolis.

This month, IBM's chief executive officer, Ginni Rometty -- a Trump economic adviser -- announced just before a meeting with Trump that she planned to hire 25,000 people in the U.S. and invest $1 billion over the next four years.

Earlier this month, Trump called on Boeing to cut the price of a new version of the president's aircraft, Air Force One. Last week, he said he had asked the company to "price-out" a new version of its F-18 Super Hornet fighter that could compete with Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive U.S. weapons system ever.

The announcements have buttressed Trump's campaign-trail claims that he would use his business acumen to broker better deals for American workers and taxpayers. He's also said he will exit or renegotiate trade deals that make it easier for companies to shift production to countries with lower labor costs, and threatened to impose significant tariffs on imports.

However, Trump's public pronouncements sometimes exaggerate either the costs of projects he's trying to influence or his own impact.

For example, he said the new Air Force One would cost $4 billion, while the Air Force has budgeted $3.2 billion so far to research, develop and purchase two of the planes. The president-elect also claimed he had persuaded Carrier to keep more than 1,000 jobs in Indianapolis; the accurate number is about 800.

And in November, the president-elect claimed credit for persuading Ford to keep an auto plant in Kentucky rather than moving it to Mexico. Ford had planned to move production of a specific model to Mexico but did not expect to close the Kentucky plant or reduce the number of jobs there.

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Boak and Jill Colvin of The Associated Press and by Justin Sink, Michelle Jamrisko, Olga Kharif and Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 12/30/2016

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