President Trump recently said that over $20 trillion in foreign investment has flowed into the US so far in his second term.
“We have more money being spent from outside countries and companies. Over $20 trillion. That’s five, six, seven times higher than any country. Not just here, any country ever,” Trump said, adding that the total could climb to $25 trillion by the end of his term.
🚨 President Trump stuns the World by saying our Manufacturing is higher than ever and $20 Trillion dollars is being invested into America
— Mr pool (@mr_pool001) October 1, 2026
"No country in HISTORY has ever been close”
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I VOTED FOR
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Yet UBS economist Arend Kapteyn wrote in a new note on Thursday that new foreign direct investment totaled $232 billion in 2025, roughly $30 billion below its 10-year average. He said that, adjusted for inflation, investment that year was below every pre-pandemic year.
“One way to assess whether manufacturing is being ‘onshored’ to the US is through foreign direct investment (FDI) data,” Kapteyn said.
Kapteyn’s findings clash with the White House’s narrative of the early innings of a durable manufacturing revival. The latest White House tracker lists trillions of dollars in announced US and foreign investments, with commitments from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India and South Korea alone exceeding $5 trillion.
