President-elect Trump addressed the nation for the first time since the certification of his November election victory on Tuesday.
Trump held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home just one day after Congress and Vice President Kamala Harris certified his electoral college victory. Trump took the opportunity to announce $20 billion in new data centers across the country.
Trump says the $20 billion will come over a “short period of time” from DAMAC Properties. Trump and the company’s owner, Hussain Sajwani, detailed that the investment will center around Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.
Sajwani said the investment is aimed at facilitating the development of AI and cloud-based technologies.
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Trump also said his administration would adopt a policy of expediting approvals for any company seeking to invest $1 billion or more in the U.S. He said that many international companies view U.S. regulations as a “quagmire.”
“If you invest a billion dollars or more, we’re going to move them quickly through the environmental process,” Trump said, going on to reference other regulations as well.
Trump’s back-and-forth with reporters also touched on the Panama Canal, which Trump has expressed interest in retaking for the U.S. He criticized President Jimmy Carter for selling the canal during his administration. The body of the late president, who passed away on Dec 29, is currently en route to the U.S. Capitol and will lie in state from 7 p.m. until midnight.
Trump also announced plans to “immediately” reverse President Biden’s bans on new oil drilling, particularly off the U.S. coasts. He says his administration plans to “drill baby, drill.”
Trump’s comments come after Biden issued an 11th-hour executive order Monday morning aimed at limiting oil growth exactly two weeks before his term ends, announcing a permanent stop to most new oil and gas drilling across U.S. coastal and offshore waters in an area that spans about 625 million acres.
