Transcript: President Trump Announces $100 Billion TSMC Investment In The US

Also, I’d like to thank the TSMC’s employees. Without their effort, we just cannot make it today. That’s all I want to say, and thank you.

Remarks from Secretary of Commerce

[COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK:] So, I’m thrilled to be here today because President Trump has made it a fundamental objective to bring semiconductor chip manufacturing home to America.

Under the Biden administration, TSMC received a $6 billion grant, and that encouraged them to build $65 billion. So, America gave TSMC 10% of the money to build here. And now you’re seeing the power of Donald Trump’s presidency because TSMC, the greatest manufacturer of chips in the world, is coming to America with a $100 billion investment.

And of course, that is backed by the fact that they can come here because they can avoid paying tariffs. So, the idea is come to America, build greatness in America, build for the American customers, the Apple, NVIDIA, that whole list that C.C. gave in order to bring production to America.

So, we’re really, really excited. This continues the most incredible path you’ve ever seen in these first weeks and months of the Trump administration of incredible manufacturing coming to America. The keys that the President has called out are coming here. They’re coming here in huge size because they want to be in the greatest market in the world, and they want to avoid the tariffs that if they’re not here, they’d have to suffer.

So, I want to congratulate C.C. Wei for bringing in this incredible $100 billion investment. But it’s on the shoulders of our President Donald Trump, which is why he’s coming. So, thank you.

Remarks from AI Advisor

[DAVID SACHS:] Thank you, sir. Well, the products that TSMC makes are literally the most important products in the world. I mean, these advanced chips power everything. They power AI. They power your phone. They power your cars. And without them, the whole modern economy would stop, but they’re not made in the United States.

So, for TSMC to move here is a huge, huge development, and we owe that to President Trump’s leadership on the economy and Secretary Lutnick as well. And C.C., thank you for coming here. Thank you.

Closing Remarks and Questions

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] So, thank you very much. A big percentage of chips with this investment will be made now, a big percentage. Worldwide, we had very little, almost none. We used to have a lot with Intel, but we had very little. And we’ll be at close to 40 percent of the market with this transaction and a couple of others that we’re doing. That’s a tremendous leap, like a leap that nobody would have really said was possible.

So, I just want to thank you all for being here. If you want a couple of questions, ideally, ideally on this subject, yes.

You’re probably talking about 20,000, 25,000 jobs, but it’ll get bigger and bigger with time. Knowing this gentleman, it’ll get bigger and bigger. There’ll be no stopping him.

Yeah, Brian, go ahead.

[REPORTER:] In addition to the job, you talk about national security. That’s one thing I think a lot of Americans don’t understand. Explain the national…

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Without the chips and semiconductors, nothing runs today. You can’t buy a car without them. You can’t get a radio, a television. You can’t get anything. And we thought it was very important, obviously business-wise, but we thought even in terms of national security to have this large percentage of the chips, semiconductors, and other things that they make, the most important product. And not a product that you can really copy. It takes years and years. On the needle of a pin is total genius. I mean, they can put things, I mean, something the size of the needle, the point of a pin. They put information that is just not even believable. So if you would see this, it’s just really something.

[UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:] Yes, Brian?

Manufacturing Growth and Tariff Impact

[REPORTER:] One more aspect to that. Honda announced it’s coming to Indiana because of the tariffs. Once again, they’re adding additional jobs and manufacturing.

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, Honda’s coming, and I told you about Apple. They’re going to be starting to build massively here, $500 billion. And we have many other companies that are going to be announced, but we have many that have already announced. And, no, it’s going to be great. It’s looking really strong. I don’t think this country has ever seen anything like we’re seeing right now.

Now, the tariffs, as you know, will start a week earlier than the reciprocal, which is going to be a couple of weeks earlier. Reciprocal starts, reciprocal tariffs start on April 2nd. And I wanted to make it April 1st, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to go April Fool’s Day because that cost a lot of money, that one day. So we’re going April 2nd. But, very importantly, tomorrow tariffs, 25 percent on Canada and 25 percent on Mexico, and that’ll start.

So they’re going to have to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs. In other words, you build, and this is exactly what Mr. Wei is doing, by building here. Otherwise, they’ll build, if they did them in Taiwan to send them here, they’ll have 25 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent or whatever the number may be someday. It’ll go only up. But by doing it here, he has no tariffs. So he’s way ahead of the game.

And I would just say this. The people in Canada or Mexico, if they’re going to build car plants, the people that are doing them are much better off building here because we have the market. We’re the market where they sell the most. And so I think it’s going to be very exciting. Very exciting for the automobile companies. Very exciting for, I can think of any, as an example, North Carolina, they had the grid. I used to go there to buy furniture for hotels. And it’s been wiped out. That business all went to other countries. And now it’s all going to come back into North Carolina, the furniture manufacturing business.

Ukraine Minerals Deal

[REPORTER:] Is the Ukraine minerals deal now dead or can it be revived?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, I’ll let you know. We’re making a speech. You probably heard about it tomorrow night. So I’ll let you know tomorrow night. But no, I don’t think so. Look, it’s a great deal for us because, you know, Biden very, very foolishly, stupidly, frankly, gave $300 billion and $350 billion more accurately to a country to fight and to try and do things. And you know what happened? We get nothing. We just gave it. We could have rebuilt our entire U.S. Navy with $350 billion. Think of it, $350 billion. We could have rebuilt our U.S. Navy.

So he gave it away as fast as the money could be gone. And what we’re doing is getting that all back and a lot more than that. And what we need is very important for this business that we’re talking about here with chips and semiconductors and everything else. We need rare earths. And the deal we have is we have the finest rare earths that you can see.

[REPORTER:] What do you need to see from President Zelensky to restart these negotiations?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, I just think he should be more appreciative, because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin. We’ve given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us, because as you know, that’s right there, that’s the border. This country really was like the fence on the border. It was very important to Europe, and I’m not knocking Europe. I’m saying that they were a lot smarter than Joe Biden, because Joe Biden didn’t have a clue. He just gave money hand over fist, and they should have been able to equalize with us. In other words, if we gave a dollar, they should have given. Well, we gave $350 billion. They probably gave $100 billion, but on top of it all, they get their money back, because they’re doing it in the form of a loan, and it’s a secured loan.

So when I saw that, which I’ve known about for a little while, I said, it’s time for us to be smart. At the same time, it’s great for them, because they get us in the country, taking the rare earth, which is going to fuel this big engine, and especially the engine that we’ve in a very short time created, and we get something, and we’re there. We have a presence there.

With all of that being said, I want one thing to happen. I want all of those young people to stop being killed. They’re being killed by the thousands every single week. Last week, 2,700 were killed. 2,700 young, in this case, just about all young boys from Ukraine and from Russia. And that’s not young people from the United States, but it’s on a human basis. I want to see it stop. The money is one thing, but the death, and they’re losing thousands of soldiers a week. And that’s not including the people that get killed every time a town goes down or a missile goes into a town. And I want to see it stop.

Yes?

U.S. Military Aid to Ukraine

[REPORTER:] Are you considering cancelling military aid to Ukraine? And can we get a reaction to what the Kremlin just said, that your administration is bringing U.S. worldview in alignment with Moscow’s?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] So this is the deal that should have never happened. This is the deal that would have never happened. And it didn’t happen. For four years, it didn’t happen. It was never even close to happening. If I were president, it would not have happened.

And I can’t wait to see what the Kremlin does. Thank you.

And if I were president, it would not have happened. And October 7th would not have happened in Israel. And inflation would have happened. And Afghanistan, disastrous the way they were through, not the fact that they were through but the way they were through, would have never happened. And we would have had Bagram right now instead of China having it. It was one hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons. We would have kept Bagram with one of the biggest air bases in the world. All of these things happened, and it’s a shame. But it is what it is, and now we’re here.

I want to see it end fast. I don’t want to see this go on for years and years. Now, President Zelensky supposedly made a statement today in AP. I’m not a big fan of AP, so maybe it was an incorrect statement. But he said he thinks the war’s going to go on for a long time. And he better not be right about that. That’s all I’m saying.

Semiconductors and Taiwan Security

[REPORTER:] Could this minimize the impact of the U.S. with chips should China decide to isolate Taiwan or China decide to take Taiwan?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, it’s a very interesting point. It’s a great question, actually. But this would certainly, I can’t say minimize. That would be a catastrophic event, obviously. But it will at least give us a position where we have, in this very, very important business, we would have a very big part of it in the United States. So it would have a big impact if something should happen with Taiwan.

[REPORTER:] Are you looking at relieving Russian sanctions if there is a peace deal?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, we’re going to make deals with everybody to get this war, including Europe and European nations. And they’ve acted very well. You know, they’re good people. I know most of them are friends of mine.

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] The heads of state, the heads of the various countries, prime ministers. I got four prime ministers and five presidents called me over the last two days. And they want to work it out. They want to get it worked out. And I think they’re also, you know, they’re talking money, but the money is less important than the deaths. We’re talking thousands of young people a week. And people would say, why do I care about Ukraine? Young people, why do I care about? And not all young, but they’re pretty young. You know, Ukraine is running a little bit low and they’re getting older. They’re recruiting older people. It’s a very, very sad thing that’s happening over there. And we want to get it finished. We want to stop the deaths.

Tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China

[REPORTER:] Mr. President, on the tariffs, is there any room left for Canada and Mexico to make a deal before midnight? And should we expect those Chinese tariffs, the extra 10 percent?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] No room left for Mexico or for Canada. No, the tariffs, you know, they’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow. And just so you understand, vast amounts of fentanyl have poured into our country from Mexico and, as you know, also from China, where it goes to Mexico and goes to Canada. And China also had an additional 10. So it’s 10 plus 10. And it comes in from Canada and it comes in from Mexico. And that’s a very important thing to say.

Yeah, please go ahead.

[REPORTER:] Are you excited if you’re going to suspend military aid to Ukraine? Have you made that decision?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, I haven’t even talked about that right now. I mean, right now, we’ll see what happens. A lot of things are happening right now. As we speak, I mean, literally, as we speak, I could give you an answer and go back to my office, the beautiful Oval Office. I could go back into the Oval Office and find out that the answer is obsolete. It’s like his business is obsolete. You come up with a new chip and it’s obsolete about two minutes later. Right. But that’s what’s good about his business. That’s why he’s the only one that’s successful in it.

Relations with Russia

[REPORTER:] But my colleague’s question from Russia is saying that your foreign policy is largely in line with their vision. Should that be concerning to Americans?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, I’ll tell you what, I think it takes two to tango and you’re going to have to make a deal with Russia and you’re going to have to make a deal with Ukraine. You’re going to have to have the assent and you’re going to have to have the consent from the European nations, because I think that’s important. And from us, I think everybody has to get into a room, so to speak, and we have to make a deal and the deal could be made very fast. It should not be that hard a deal to make. It could be made very fast.

Now, maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal. And if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long, because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal. I believe certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal. They’ve suffered more than anybody else. We talk about suffering. They’ve suffered.

And if you think about it, under President Bush, they got Georgia, right? Russia got Georgia. Under President Obama, they got a nice big submarine base, a nice big chunk of land where they have their submarines. You know that, right? Crimea. Under President Trump, they got nothing. And under President Biden, they tried to get the whole thing. They tried to get the whole big Ukraine, the whole thing. If I didn’t get in here, they would have gotten the whole thing.

So I can only say, you can go back to Bush, you can go back to Obama, and go back to Biden. They took a lot. The only one they didn’t get, you know what I gave them? I gave them anti-tank missiles. That’s what I gave them. I gave them sanctions on Russia. I gave them javelins. You know the javelins? You know, when they took out all those tanks? You know, the tanks were heading to Kiev by the hundreds. And they were unstoppable. And I gave them javelins.

So you know, I really, Putin is the one that will tell you this has not been so good for them. The fact is that I just want fairness. I want fairness. But think of it. I gave Russia nothing except grief. I gave them nothing. I gave them sanctions and javelins. That’s what I gave them. Obama gave them sheets. And you heard that statement before. It’s a very famous, Trump gave them javelins and Obama gave them sheets. And then they say how close I am to Russia.

Let me tell you, we have to make a deal because there are a lot of people being killed that shouldn’t be killed. But remember, Trump gave them nothing and the other presidents gave them a lot. They gave them everything.

Trade With Argentina and Other Nations

[REPORTER:] Mr. President, on trade, you met with Argentine President Javier Milei at CPAC. You want to sign a free trade agreement with the United States. Is that something that you would consider even with Argentina?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] I’ll consider anything. And Argentina, I think he’s great, by the way. I think he’s a great leader. He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a fantastic job. Brought it back from oblivion. Yeah, we’ll look at things. We’re looking at the UK with things. It doesn’t have to be tariffs. But tariffs are easy. They’re fast. They’re efficient. And they bring fairness.

For instance, when people kill their dollar, their equivalent of the dollar, whether it’s the won or the yen in Japan or the won in China, when they drop them down, that puts us at a very unfair disadvantage. So all I have to do is say, Howard, we’re going to have to raise the tariffs a little bit because I’ve called presidency, I’ve called the leaders of Japan to say you can’t continue to reduce and break down your currency. You can’t do it because it’s unfair to us.

It’s very hard for us to make tractors, Caterpillar, here when Japan, China and other places are killing their currency, meaning driving it down. So all of these things add up. And the way you solve it very easily is with tariffs, because when they do that, instead of having to make phone calls every day like I used to do with certain leaders, President Xi a little bit, a lot of phone calls, talking about the fact that they’re lowering their won, they’re lowering it down. And that makes it very, very hard for us. So this way, I just say, look, let them do that. And we make up for it with the tariffs. But yeah, sure. I will. I have a lot of respect for her. I have a lot of respect for her.

Tariffs on China

[REPORTER:] It’ll be 20 percent on China now. How high are you willing to go against China?

[PRESIDENT TRUMP:] Well, I can’t say it depends on what they do with their currency. It depends on what they do in terms of a retaliation with some kind of an economic retaliation, which I don’t think they’re going to retaliate too much. Look, the United States has been taken advantage of for 40 years. The United States has been a laughingstock for years and years. That’s why this gentleman is built in Taiwan instead of building here. It would have been better to be built here if we had a president that knew what they were doing. And we had a lot of them very bad on trade.

Look, I’m a huge fan of Ronald Reagan, but he was bad on trade, very bad on trade. He allowed a lot of people, a lot of businesses to be taken. So I say that with due respect, because he was so great on other things. But he was bad on trade.

We are setting records right now, records like nobody has ever seen before. When you have companies like this coming in and almost 40 percent of their company in one signature is going to be devoted to what he does, which is one of the most important businesses in the world. That’s an unbelievable thing. When Apple now is going to start building all of their plants here, all because of what we’ve done in terms of it’s not because he likes me or they like me. They don’t probably like me at—

PRESIDENT TRUMP: All. I don’t know. I think he likes me a little bit, at least. But you know what? It’s the incentive we created or the negative incentive. I mean, it’s going to be very costly for people to take advantage of this country. They can’t come in and steal our money and steal our jobs and take our factories and take our businesses and expect not to be punished. And they’re being punished by tariffs. It’s a very powerful weapon that politicians haven’t used because they were either dishonest, stupid or paid off in some other form. And now we’re using them.

REPORTER: Have you spoken with President Xi about this?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t want to tell you that. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much.

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