Expert shreds Trump's 'laughable' $18 trillion boast: 'Can't find it anywhere in the data'
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February 05, 2026
President Donald Trump and his allies continue to push a claim that he secured $18 trillion in foreign investment into the United States — but MS NOW analyst Steve Rattner brought down the reality hammer on Thursday's edition of "Morning Joe."
"So the president loves that $18trillion figure, Steve," said anchor Willie Geist. "But asyou point out, even the WhiteHouse says it's half of that."
"Yeah, that's the incrediblething, Willie," said Rattner. "Obviously you'venoticed how he talks about $18trillion all the time, over andover and over again. But hisown website — this is the mostincredible thing, his ownwebsite only claims credit for $9.6 trillion. And so you'dthink they would at leastchange the website, or he wouldstop saying it. But no, theydon't do either."
"But in fact,there's no real evidence ofthat either so far," Rattner added. "You cansee that this is a totalprivate investment and all thekinds of things the presidentis talking about. It's beenrunning consistently at about$1 trillion a quarter. And youcan see here that it hasn'treally gone up much."
This isn't the only false claim Trump has made about foreign investment, Rattner continued.
"First of all, when he saysBiden only got a trillion,Biden got a trillion a quarter, $4 trillion a year during histime in office," he said. "The likelihoodof the president producing $18trillion when our totalinvestment is around $1trillion, it's kind oflaughable. And in fact, if youdig into some of the projectsthat are in this website,you'll see some of them likesome things Apple is doing,like the semiconductor plants in Arizona that I mentionedalready happening or whathappened anyway, and havenothing to do with anything thepresident has done."
Bottom line, Rattner concluded, "he loveshis $18 trillion number, butyou can't find it anywhere inthe data."