United States President Donald Trump has announced $200bn in investments from South Korea, $54bn of which is slated to go to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Alaska.
The announcement was made at the White House on Wednesday and comes as Trump seeks to defend the Republican Party’s economic record during a heated midterm election season.
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“We’re thrilled to announce one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in American history,” Trump said.
The president highlighted the involvement of Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, referencing the challenges the Republican incumbent faces defending his Senate seat in the November 3 race.
“Dan Sullivan, the senator of Alaska, has been a great senator, and he’s been working on this deal and other deals in Alaska, the pipeline, for almost 20 years. And we’re now getting it done,” Trump said.
Sullivan spoke alongside Trump in the White House Oval Office, and he pledged that the energy project would deliver low-cost energy “for 50 to a hundred years” to come. He also estimated 12,000 jobs would be created to build the project.
“This is going to be the biggest LNG project in our country. We will be able to get gas, of course, to Alaskans first and to our military — and we need it — but to our Asian allies,” Sullivan added.
Alaska is one of several Republican-leaning states that Democrats perceive as vulnerable in the midterms.
Democrats are seeking to flip both chambers of Congress in November. But with only 35 seats up for grabs in the 100-member Senate, each race will be critical in determining party control of Congress’s upper chamber.
Sullivan is currently in a narrow race against former Congress member Mary Peltola, a Democrat.
Billions in South Korean investments
The newly announced investments stem from a $350bn trade and investment deal the US signed with South Korea last November.
As part of the deal, the US agreed to lower its tariffs on South Korean cars, auto parts and other products. In return, South Korea committed to invest $150bn in US shipbuilding and $200bn in other strategic sectors.
The Alaska investment project consists of a 1,300km (807-mile) natural gas pipeline connecting the North Slope region — an oil-rich tundra bordering the Arctic Ocean — to an export terminal in the southern part of the state, according to the White House.
South Korea is the world’s third-largest LNG importer, after China and Japan.
Wednesday’s event also included announcements about South Korean investments in nuclear power plants and a 6-gigawatt power generation facility in Texas, another state with a vulnerable Senate race.
There, Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico is seeking to become the first Democrat to win statewide office in Texas since 1994, as he competes against Republican Ken Paxton for an open seat.
South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said last week that the state’s gas-fired power plant — slated to be built in the southwestern town of Encinal, Texas — was the first project it selected under its $200bn strategic investment programme.
Shifting Asia Pacific relations
Since taking office for a second term in 2025, Trump has sought to unveil new trade deals with a range of international partners, accusing many of unfair economic practices.
He has used the threat of US tariffs as leverage in cementing such deals. Last November, as part of the agreement with South Korea, the Trump administration agreed to cut tariffs on certain imports from 25 to 15 percent.
South Korea has long been a close ally of the US government in the Asia Pacific region, though relations have grown more strained in recent months.
In August, for instance, Trump announced his administration would reduce the number of military exercises it conducts with South Korea, in part citing frustration with the Asian country’s lack of support for the US-Israel war against Iran.
The shifting relations have coincided with a decline in public approval among South Koreans. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center found that, for the first time in two decades, a majority of South Koreans hold an unfavourable view of the US.
An estimated 55 percent of South Koreans surveyed said they perceived the North American country negatively.
Certain Republicans, however, have encouraged Trump to maintain close relations with South Korea, as a bulwark against China’s expanding influence in the region.
On Wednesday, ahead of the White House announcement, Congressman John Moolenaar of Michigan issued an open letter calling the alliance between the two countries “indispensable”.
He also urged the Trump administration to exercise “heightened vigilance” about warming ties between South Korea and China, and he accused South Korea of “discriminatory treatment of American firms relative to their [China]-linked competitors”.
“The [US-South Korea] alliance remains indispensable, and my interest is in strengthening it,” Moolenaar wrote.
“But an alliance is sustained by candor, and allied divergence on important national interests is not a concern to take lightly.”