Fact check: Vance repeats Trump’s fictional ‘$19 trillion’ investment figure

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President Donald Trump has for months been using a fictional economic figure. Vice President JD Vance echoed it on Thursday.

Vance, listing the administration’s “wins” while speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room, claimed “we’ve seen $19 trillion of new investment come into the country.” But there is no basis for the “$19 trillion” number, which the White House has never been able to explain – and again failed to explain when CNN happened to inquire hours before Vance’s comments.

When Vance spoke, the White House’s own website claimed there had been “$11 trillion” in “major investment announcements” this presidential term, not “$19 trillion” in actual investment, and even the White House figure is a major exaggeration. A detailed CNN review in October found the White House had counted trillions of dollars in vague pledges, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment, and vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges.

Federal data shows that new foreign direct investment in the US was about $232 billion in 2025. The White House’s figure includes pledges from US-based companies as well as foreign entities.

Trump has steadily increased the baseless investment figure, which he put at “$17 trillion” last fall and “$19.2 trillion” as of last week . On Wednesday, he told Republican lawmakers that with an additional two months of data, “now it’s over $20 trillion is being invested in our country.”

But the White House could not substantiate the president’s increase.

When CNN asked for any evidence for the new “$20 trillion” figure, White House spokesperson Kush Desai emailed a reply without any such evidence. Instead, Desai returned to the Trump team’s standard practice of declaring that “President Trump is right” even about Trump claims the team can’t corroborate.

“President Trump is right: business leaders from across the world and across industries are lining up to invest in the United States thanks to the Trump administration’s pro-growth agenda,” Desai said.

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几个月来，唐纳德·特朗普总统一直使用一个虚构的经济数据。副总统JD·万斯周四也重复了这一说法。

万斯在白宫新闻发布室向记者列举本届政府的“政绩”时声称，“我们看到19万亿美元的新投资流入美国”。但“19万亿美元”这个数字没有任何依据，白宫始终无法解释——就在万斯发表这番言论的几个小时前，CNN就此询问白宫，白宫依然未能给出明确答复。

万斯发表讲话时，白宫官网声称本届总统任期内“重大投资公告”总额为“11万亿美元”，而非实际投资额“19万亿美元”，而且白宫公布的数字本身就严重夸大。CNN在10月份的一项详细调查发现，白宫将数万亿美元的投资计入了含糊不清的承诺中，这些承诺涉及“双边贸易”或“经济交流”，而非真正的投资，还有一些模糊不清的声明，甚至连承诺都算不上。

联邦数据显示，2025年美国新增外国直接投资约为2320亿美元。白宫的数据包括美国本土公司和外国实体的投资承诺。

特朗普不断提高毫无根据的投资数字，去年秋天他声称是“17万亿美元”，上周又说是“19.2万亿美元”。周三，他告诉共和党议员，加上两个月的数据，“现在投资到我们国家的资金已经超过20万亿美元。”

但白宫无法证实总统的说法。

当CNN要求白宫提供“20万亿美元”这一新数字的证据时，白宫发言人库什·德赛在回复邮件中并未提供任何证据。相反，德赛又回到了特朗普团队的一贯做法，即即便特朗普的说法无法得到团队证实，他也宣称“特朗普总统是对的”。

德赛表示：“特朗普总统说得对：得益于特朗普政府的促增长政策，来自世界各地、各行各业的商业领袖都纷纷涌向美国投资。”