President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Sprint Corp (S) and OneWeb, a satellite company, would create 8,000 U.S. jobs. However, the news wasn’t “news” after all — Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. had already promised to do this, making the incident another of Trump’s non-news or incorrect business claims.
As said previously this month following a meeting at Trump Tower, SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son plans on investing $50 billion in the U.S. in addition to creating 50,000 jobs, reports Politico. SoftBank has stakes in both Sprint (82 percent) and OneWeb, reports Reuters.
“I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States, they are taking them from other countries,” Trump told reporters in Florida. “And also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people. So that’s very exciting.”
The novelty of Trump’s announcement unraveled Wednesday as the facts started pouring out.
so to recap, the sprint news is tied to masa’s existing commitment
the oneweb news is something they announced earlier this month
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) December 29, 2016
Sprint, which has slashed jobs in a $2.5 billion cost-cutting effort, discussed the 5,000 jobs Wednesday and said they would be in departments like sales and customer care. The jobs will arrive in time for the end of its fiscal year in March 2018.
SoftBank said that it was at the helm of a $1.2 billion funding round for OneWeb, which aims to create nearly 3,000 jobs for the company plus its suppliers.
Earlier this year, Trump took credit on Twitter for helping talk Ford Motor Co. ( F) into not sending a Lincoln plant to Mexico from Kentucky.
Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky – no Mexico
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016
However, Ford doesn’t have a Lincoln-only Kentucky plant. The company has a plant there that produces the Lincoln MKC SUV and the Ford Escape. Ford had reportedly been looking to shift production for that Lincoln model, but that was shut down.
All this came after Ford fact-checked Trump following the first presidential debate back in September. He claimed the company was going to send American jobs from Michigan and Ohio to Mexico. Ford tweeted several responses.
Ford has more hourly employees and produces more vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker. pic.twitter.com/k15cqknsvX
— Ford Motor Company (@Ford) September 27, 2016
@Plumcrazy909 #Ford will maintain its U.S. jobs because two new vehicles are planned for Wayne, MI plant beginning in 2018.
— Ford Motor Company (@Ford) September 27, 2016
7 Things That Happened When Donald Trump Met With Tech Leaders
8 Ways President Donald Trump Will Affect Wall Street
More from U.S. News
7 Things That Happened When Donald Trump Met With Tech Leaders
8 Ways President Donald Trump Will Affect Wall Street
7 Companies That People Are Boycotting Because of the Trump Family
Trump’s Sprint Corp (S) Announcement Is Old News originally appeared on usnews.com
