Trump stopped in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he has been meeting with advisers and potential Cabinet picks, along with SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Masa from SoftBank of Japan, and he’s just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs," Trump said.

Son told reporters his company would create jobs by investing in start up companies in the United States.

"I just came to celebrate his new job. We were talking about it. Then I said I would like to celebrate his presidential job and commit, because he would do a lot of deregulation. I said this is great. The United States would become great again,” Son said. </s> Billionaire business tycoon Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday he would invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 new jobs, a move President-elect Donald Trump claimed was a direct result of his election win.

The investment revived speculation that U.S. telecoms giant Sprint Corp., 82 percent-owned by Son’s SoftBank Group Corp., might rekindle merger talks with T-Mobile U.S. Inc that died under pressure from U.S. regulators.

The lack of details on investment timetable also prompted doubts whether the promise of money and jobs will be met, as Sprint is slashing staff numbers to cut more than $2 billion in costs this year.

Trump’s moves since the election to engage with individual companies, while turning his back on broader, years-in-the-works trade deals, show that the President-elect is leaning on the deal-making skills he honed in the boardroom.

Trump campaigned against the over-regulation of business and is expected to be more open to mergers than President Barack Obama.

The investment, announced jointly by Trump and Son in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, would come from the $100 billion investment fund the head of SoftBank is setting up with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and other potential partners, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Masa from SoftBank of Japan, and he’s just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs,” Trump said.

“He would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!” Trump later Tweeted.

Son, who wore a red tie and red sweater under his suit jacket, told reporters his company, a $68 billion telecommunications and tech investment behemoth, would create jobs by investing in startup companies in the United States.

“We are going to invest $50 billion into the U.S. and commit to create 50,000 new jobs,” said Son, adding that he expected a lot of “deregulation” under a Trump administration.

Trump and Son did not give a timeline for the investment. Trump’s four-year term will begin after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Son’s well-timed meeting with Trump is introducing U.S. audiences to a side of the billionaire already familiar in Japan — a consummate showman.

Son, who rose to global prominence when SoftBank acquired Sprint in 2013, is known overseas primarily as a savvy investor and entrepreneur. But the Japanese have long seen his dramatic side, like the time he choked up on stage remembering his difficult upbringing, with a giant black-and-white photo of his immigrant grandmother hovering in the background.

SoftBank’s strategy of investing in startups which employ relatively few people means Son may struggle to deliver on his job promise. The 50,000 target exceeds the combined workforce of Sprint, SoftBank’s most recent acquisition ARM Holdings Plc and its e-commerce unit Yahoo Japan Corp.

Japan’s second-richest man has a 300-year plan for his worldwide technology empire and is fond of speaking about the imminent advent of advanced artificial intelligence. Son often teams up with SoftBank’s Pepper robot for company announcements. He also likes to poke fun at his balding pate to the delight of his 2.5 million Twitter followers.

While Son is a celebrity in Japan, he has a long way to go in the U.S. Addressing local media after the meeting, Son had to explain that SoftBank is not the manufacturer of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and he is not in fact the CEO of Foxconn Technology Group, the Taiwanese company that makes the smartphones.

In October, prior to the election, SoftBank said Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would be the lead partner in the fund and could invest up to $45 billion over the next five years. SoftBank expects to put in at least $25 billion.

Shares in SoftBank rose 6.2 percent to close at ¥7,387 on Wednesday in Tokyo.

“Now the market sees SoftBank as a Trump-related stock and that’s because it reacted favorably to their meeting,” said Fumio Matsumoto, a fund manager at Dalton Capital in Japan.

Son had hoped to merge Sprint with T-Mobile U.S. to take on U.S. market leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.

Shares of Sprint briefly reached their highest level in 2½ years, soon after Son’s comments. They closed up 1.5 percent to $8.17 in heavy trading, ending well below session highs. Shares of T-Mobile U.S. were up 1.8 percent at $55.99.

It was not immediately clear how much of SoftBank’s investment had been disclosed before. SoftBank said on Nov. 7, the day before the U.S. election, it planned to make future large-scale investments via the $100 billion tech fund, rather than on its own, to avoid growing already-bloated debt.

Whether or not Trump’s election led to SoftBank’s planned investment, the billionaire’s victory has been a boon to stock investors. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at another record level on Tuesday, its 11th new high since the Nov. 8 vote.

Should the SoftBank fund grow as large as $100 billion, it would be one of the world’s largest private equity investors and a potential kingpin in the technology sector.

SoftBank, a diverse firm that also holds stakes in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been stepping up investment in new areas, as Son aims to make the firm the “Berkshire Hathaway of the tech industry.” It purchased U.K. chip design firm Arm Holdings for $32 billion this year in Japan’s largest ever outbound deal. </s> President-elect Donald Trump is claiming credit for a $50 billion investment in the United States by a Japanese tech conglomerate -- a deal he says wouldn't have happened without him.

The company, Softbank, hasn't given details. But in October, weeks before the election, Softbank and the government of Saudi Arabia agreed to form a $100 billion fund to invest in technology companies around the world.

Trump tweeted the news Tuesday afternoon: "Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs," he wrote. "Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!"

At about the same time, the president-elect made a brief appearance with Softbank (SFTBF) CEO Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower.

Speaking with reporters, Son said he told Trump he would like to "celebrate his presidential job" because Trump has made deregulation part of his platform.

Son also said the investment would be in "startup companies" in the U.S.

Softbank has huge stakes in wireless, broadband, internet, e-commerce, chipmaking and gadget businesses. It's one of the largest telecommunications companies in Japan, and it was the first Japanese cell phone carrier to sell the iPhone.

Softbank bought 70% of Sprint for $20 billion in 2012. It also has enormous stakes in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Yahoo Japan and smartphone chip designer ARM. And it has partnered with Foxconn on its robotics business, most notably making Pepper, the robot pal that learns to love people.

Son, the company's idiosyncratic CEO, put together a 300-year plan for Softbank that calls for it to help permanently break down language barriers and allow people to communicate telepathically.

Softbank wants to build computers that invent new machines and raise the human life expectancy to 200 years.

Stock in Sprint (S), which is owned by SoftBank, immediately jumped more than 2%. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — Winning praise from President-elect Donald Trump for being a “great man of industry,” Japanese tech billionaire Masayoshi Son promised to invest $50 billion in new startups in the United States, committing to creating 50,000 new jobs.

Son is the founder and chief executive of Japanese technology and telecoms giant SoftBank, which owns the U.S. mobile carrier Sprint. Sprint shares initially spiked after the announcement. Son left Trump Tower after being escorted down the elevator by the president-elect, who touted the pledge before waiting investors.

“We are going to invest $50 billion in the U.S. and commit to create 50,000 new jobs,” Son told reporters. “We (will) invest into the new startup companies in the United States.”

The announcement is the latest instance in which Trump appears to be conducting economic policy via ad-hoc deal-making — sometimes taking credit whether he deserves it or not. Last week, the president-elect spoke at the Carrier furnace plant in Indianapolis after the company announced plans to keep 800 jobs at the plant instead of outsourcing them to Mexico. Trump quickly claimed he had saved those positions, even though the company is still shifting more than 1,000 jobs from that factory and another Indiana plant to Mexico.

Similarly, the week after the election Trump tweeted that he had dissuaded Ford Motor Co. from moving a Kentucky factory to Mexico. The claim was a stretch; Ford had no plans to move the plant and had already agreed to keep producing one specific model there, although it did back away from a plan to shift production of the Lincoln MKC, a small SUV, from Louisville to Cuautitlan, Mexico.

Trump quickly took credit for Son’s commitment on Tuesday, writing on Twitter: “Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!”

“I just came to celebrate his new job,” Son said. “Because he said he would do a lot of deregulation, I said, ‘This is great, the U.S. will become great again’.”

Trump praised Son for being a “great man of industry,” and “one of the truly great men,” adding, “See you soon” as he headed back upstairs.

Trump plans to meet with leading tech executives next week, a group that will include venture capitalist Peter Thiel — one of Trump’s few supporters in Silicon Valley — and Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins. The job commitments that Trump claims to have produced are symbolically resonant. Still, the economy has generated 2.25 million new jobs in the past 12 months and many economists say that accelerating this pace may be difficult in the long run because of the aging U.S. population.

Financial details about Son’s commitment and its timeframe remain unclear. T-Mobile did not answer emailed questions. Sprint spokesman Dave Tovar referred questions to Softbank.

As he spoke to reporters, Son held up a paper with the logos of Softbank and Foxconn, a tech manufacturer that makes iPhones for Apple in China. The paper listed the figures $50 billion and $7 billion and said “generate 50,000 new jobs and 50,000 new jobs over the next four years.

Foxconn Technology Group issued a statement saying it could “confirm that we are in preliminary discussions regarding a potential investment that would represent an expansion of our current US operations.”

The statement said the scope of any possible investment was undecided and details would be announced after discussions with “relevant U.S. officials.”

Sprint has struggled since its 2013 acquisition by Softbank. The carrier’s attempt to join with rival T-Mobile failed in 2014 after regulators objected to combining two of the four largest mobile telecom companies in the United States. T-Mobile has surpassed Sprint to become the No. 3 carrier, while Sprint has struggled with cost cuts and layoffs. (AT&T and Verizon are the largest wireless carriers.)

Analysts have predicted, however, that a Trump-led Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission would be more likely to allow telecom mergers , including a deal between Sprint and T-Mobile. T-Mobile has 50,000 employees and a stock-market value of $46 billion — but the similarities between those numbers and Son’s commitment could just be a coincidence.

In October, SoftBank announced that it would establish a $25 billion fund for technology investments that could grow to $100 billion. SoftBank said it signed an agreement with a fund run by the government of Saudi Arabia and other investors. Japanese media said the planned $50 billion investment would come from that fund. Softbank spokesman Matthew Nicholson declined to say if it would provide the money for the U.S. investments.

SoftBank also owns Britain’s ARM Holdings. ARM is known as an innovator in the “internet of things,” and in technology used in smartphones. It also sells the Pepper human-shaped companion robot for homes and businesses, and runs a solar energy business in Japan. The company, founded in 1981, also has within its investment empire financial technology and ride-booking services.

Arbel reported from New York. AP technology writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this report from San Francisco. </s> President-elect Donald Trump is claiming credit for a $50 billion investment in the United States by a Japanese tech conglomerate -- a deal he says wouldn't have happened without him.

The company, SoftBank, hasn't given details. But in October, weeks before the election, SoftBank and the government of Saudi Arabia agreed to form a $100 billion fund to invest in technology companies around the world.

Trump tweeted the news Tuesday afternoon: "Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs," he wrote. "Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!"

At about the same time, the president-elect made a brief appearance with SoftBank (SFTBF) CEO Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower.

Speaking with reporters, Son said he told Trump he would like to "celebrate his presidential job" because Trump has made deregulation part of his platform.

Son also said the investment would be in "startup companies" in the U.S.

SoftBank funds have already invested in some highly-valued tech startups across the globe. Among them: personal finance firm SoFi and Uber competitors Ola in India, Grab in Southeast Asia and Didi Chuxing in China, according to PitchBook. Uber sold its Chinese operations to Didi earlier this year.

SoftBank has huge stakes in wireless, broadband, internet, e-commerce, chipmaking and gadget businesses. It's one of the largest telecommunications companies in Japan, and it was the first Japanese cell phone carrier to sell the iPhone.

SoftBank bought 70% of Sprint for $20 billion in 2012. It also has enormous stakes in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Yahoo Japan and smartphone chip designer ARM. And it has partnered with Foxconn on its robotics business, most notably making Pepper, the robot pal that learns to love people.

Son, the company's idiosyncratic CEO, put together a 300-year plan for SoftBank that calls for it to help permanently break down language barriers and allow people to communicate telepathically.

SoftBank wants to build computers that invent new machines and raise the human life expectancy to 200 years.

Stock in Sprint (S), which is owned by SoftBank, immediately jumped more than 2%. </s> By Josh Boak and Tali Arbel, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — After meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday, Japanese tech billionaire Masayoshi Son said he will invest $50 billion in the United States and would “commit” to creating 50,000 new jobs over an unspecified time period.

Son is the founder and chief executive of SoftBank, one of Japan’s largest technology outfits, which owns the U.S. mobile carrier Sprint. Sprint shares initially spiked after the announcement. Son left Trump Tower after being escorted down the elevator by the president-elect, who touted the pledge before waiting investors.

The announcement is the latest instance in which Trump appears to be conducting economic policy via ad-hoc deal-making — sometimes taking credit whether he deserves it or not. Last week, the president-elect spoke at the Carrier furnace plant in Indianapolis after the company announced plans to keep 800 jobs at the plant instead of outsourcing them to Mexico. Trump quickly claimed he had saved those positions, even though the company is still shifting more than 1,000 jobs from that factory and another Indiana plant to Mexico.

Similarly, the week after the election Trump tweeted that he had dissuaded Ford Motor Co. from moving a Kentucky factory to Mexico. The claim was a stretch; Ford had no plans to move the plant and had already agreed to keep producing one specific model there, although it did back away from a plan to shift production of the Lincoln MKC, a small SUV, from Louisville to Cuautitlan, Mexico.

Trump quickly took credit for Son’s commitment on Tuesday, writing on Twitter: “Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!”

“I just came to celebrate his new job,” Son said. “I said, ‘This is great, the U.S. will become great again’.”

Trump plans to meet with leading tech executives next week, a group that will include venture capitalist Peter Thiel — one of Trump’s few supporters in Silicon Valley — and Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins. The job commitments that Trump claims to have produced are symbolically resonant. Still, the economy has generated 2.25 million new jobs in the past 12 months and many economists say that accelerating this pace may be difficult in the long run because of the aging U.S. population.

Financial details about Son’s commitment and its timeframe remain unclear. Softbank and T-Mobile did not answer emailed questions. Sprint spokesman Dave Tovar referred questions to Softbank. Foxconn, a tech manufacturer that makes iPhones for Apple in China, also did not answer questions. Its logo was next to Softbank’s on a piece of paper Son carried.

Sprint has struggled since its 2013 acquisition by Softbank. The carrier’s attempt to join with rival T-Mobile failed in 2014 after regulators objected to combining two of the four largest mobile telecom companies in the United States. T-Mobile has surpassed Sprint to become the No. 3 carrier, while Sprint has struggled with cost cuts and layoffs. (AT&T and Verizon are the largest wireless carriers.)

Analysts have predicted, however, that a Trump-led Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission would be more likely to allow telecom mergers , including a deal between Sprint and T-Mobile. T-Mobile has 50,000 employees and a stock-market value of $46 billion — but the similarities between those numbers and Son’s commitment could just be a coincidence.

In October, SoftBank announced that it would establish a $25 billion fund for technology investments that could grow to $100 billion. SoftBank said it signed an agreement with a fund run by the government of Saudi Arabia and other investors.

In addition to Sprint, SoftBank owns Britain’s ARM Holdings. ARM is known as an innovator in the “internet of things,” and in technology used in smartphones. It also sells the Pepper human-shaped companion robot for homes and businesses, and runs a solar energy business in Japan. The company, founded in 1981, also has within its investment empire financial technology and ride-booking services.

AP technology writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this report from San Francisco. </s> Before he's even taken office, President-elect Donald Trump has proven to be quite the job creator.

Ford Motor Company announced Tuesday it will cancel a $1.6 billion plant planned for Mexico and will instead invest $700 million in a Michigan assembly plant, directly tying the decision to “pro-growth policies” championed by President-elect Donald Trump.

Instead of driving jobs and wealth away, AMERICA will become the world's great magnet for INNOVATION & JOB CREATION.https://t.co/siXrptsOrt — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017

Trump had previously been critical of Ford’s plans to build in Mexico. After the announcement, Trump tweeted a link to a story about the Ford decision and then added in a subsequent message: "Instead of driving jobs and wealth away, AMERICA will become the world's great magnet for INNOVATION & JOB CREATION."

“We’re doing this decision based on what’s right for our business,” Ford CEO Mark Fields told Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Network. “As we think about the investments here in Michigan, as you can imagine, Neil, we look at a lot of factors as we make those. One of the factors that we’re looking at is a more positive U.S. manufacturing business environment under President-elect Trump and some of the pro-growth policies he said he’s going to pursue. And so this is a vote of confidence.”

WATCH: FORD CEO MARK FIELDS ON FOX BUSINESS NETWORK

Fields said Ford would have gone ahead with the decision whether or not Trump was elected president, however, he did say that he alerted both Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence ahead of the announcement on Tuesday.



The Ford news was the latest in a string of pre-inauguration successes for Trump in the manufacturing sector.

In early December, air conditioner and furnace maker Carrier agreed to stay in Indiana after weeks of negotiations headed by Pence. The decision reportedly saved about 700 jobs that would have been shifted to Mexico.

Later in the month, wireless provider Sprint and Internet company OneWeb announced they would be adding thousands of jobs in the U.S. Both companies are controlled by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who had previously met with Trump.

Earlier Tuesday morning, Trump took aim at another auto giant: General Motors.

"General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!" Trump tweeted.

GM, however, quickly pushed back on Trump's assertions.

"GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S." a statement said.

The investment in the Flat Rock Assembly Plant is set to create 700 jobs, according to Fields. The money, which was taken from the $1.6 billion earmarked for the Mexico plant, will be used to open a new factory that will build high-tech autonomous and electric vehicles as well as the Mustang and Lincoln Continental, the company said in a press release.

"I am thrilled that we have been able to secure additional UAW-Ford jobs for American workers," UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said in the release. "The men and women of Flat Rock Assembly have shown a great commitment to manufacturing quality products, and we look forward to their continued success with a new generation of high-tech vehicles." </s> The Latest on President Donald Trump’s second official visit to Europe (all times local):

President Donald Trump is praising his daughter, Ivanka, and acknowledging the challenges he’s added to her life.

In a rare, self-deprecating moment, the president said Saturday during remarks in Hamburg, Germany that he’s been proud of his eldest daughter from “day one.”

He says, “If she weren’t my daughter it would be so much easier for her,” adding with a laugh: “That might be the only bad thing she has going, if you want to know the truth.”

The candid aside came as Trump was speaking at the launch of a new women’s entrepreneurship fund that Ivanka Trump helped bring together.

Ivanka Trump moved to Washington to work as a senior adviser to her father and has faced pressure from critics who’d hoped she’d be able to push him to adopt more moderate policies.

President Donald Trump is praising a new women’s entrepreneurship fund launched by his daughter and the World Bank that will help women access capital, financing and other support.

Trump says that his administration is making a $50 million commitment to the effort at an event held alongside the Group of 20 world leaders’ summit in Hamburg, Germany.

He says the group will help eliminate barriers for women to launch businesses and transform “millions and millions of lives.”

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim announced Saturday that the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative had raised $325 million from governments including the U.S., Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Canada.

Trump says that, “Empowering women is a core value that binds us together.”

First Daughter Ivanka Trump and the World Bank are rolling out a new fund that aims to help female entrepreneurs access capital, financing and other support.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim says the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative fund has so far raised $325 million from various governments. He hopes to leverage that into a multibillion-dollar fund.

The money will go toward improving access to capital and markets, providing technical assistance, training and mentoring, pushing public policy and investing in projects and programs that support women and women-led businesses.

Kim says, “this is not acute little project,” and says it will drive economic growth.

He’s speaking at a panel on women’s entrepreneurship that coincides with the meeting of Group of 20 leaders in Hamburg, Germany.

President Donald Trump is meeting Britain’s head of government on the sidelines of an international summit in Germany.

Trump said Saturday that he and Prime Minister Theresa May have had “tremendous talks” and developed a “special relationship.”

Trump also says they are working on a trade deal that will be “great for both countries,” but he provided no details.

The two leaders have met several times since Trump took office and collaborate on a number of issues, from security to trade.

Trump and May are sitting down for a meeting Saturday while attending the G-20 summit of industrialized and developed nations.

President Donald Trump will meet with a long list of world leaders Saturday as he wraps up his second trip abroad.

Trump will hold meetings with British Prime Minster Theresa May, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping of China.

He’ll also attend a women’s entrepreneurship finance event and participate in various sessions with fellow Group of 20 leaders.

The second day of the summit of world leaders that has been overshadowed by violent riots between anti-globalization activists and police is expected to include talks on global trade, climate change and international terrorism.

Trump is set to return to Washington Saturday evening. </s> President-elect Donald Trump appeared to be focusing on core economic issues in his emerging Cabinet on Wednesday, while he prepared to step aside from his sprawling businesses.

Trump officially announced key members of his economic team, choosing former banker and Hollywood financier Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and billionaire industrialist Wilbur Ross to run the Commerce Department. As Ross’s deputy, Trump turned to Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Rickets, whose family are powerful conservative donors.

“This team will be instrumental in implementing the President-elect’s America First economic plan that will create more than 25 million jobs over the next decade,” Trump’s transition team said in statement.

The economic focus came as Trump’s advisers continued promoting his role in a deal with air-conditioning manufacturer Carrier, which has announced it would reverse plans to move one of its factories from Indiana to Mexico. The company, owned by United Technologies, said about 1,000 U.S. jobs would be preserved. Trump’s promise to keep jobs in the United States and rebuild American manufacturing was a core part of his insurgent campaign.

“The Carrier deal, I think it’s terrific,” Mnuchin told reporters as he walked into Manhattan’s Trump Tower Wednesday morning to meet with his future boss. He said Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence had “picked up the phone and called the CEO of the United Technologies and told them we want to keep jobs here. Can’t remember the last time a president did that.”

Details of the deal remained unclear, including the extent of Trump’s personal involvement versus Pence or other officials, and whether any incentives were offered to keep the jobs in the state, where Pence is the governor.

Also uncertain were the specifics of how Trump, a longtime real estate developer with interests around the globe, planned to step away from overseeing his business. Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he would soon leave the conglomerate.

“I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Twitter, which has remained his favorite communication medium during the transition.

The announcement, seen as a response to increasingly voiced concerns about the potential conflicts of interest between Trump’s public and private roles, marks a turn from his months-long refusal to distance himself from his private affairs while holding the nation’s highest public office.

But Trump did not say if the new arrangement would include a full sale of his stake or, as he has offered before, a ceding of company management to his children, which ethics advisers have said would not resolve worries that the business could still influence his decisions in the Oval Office.

Presidents are not bound by the strict conflict-of-interest laws governing most U.S. elected officials. But most modern presidents have agreed to sell or sequester their assets in a “blind trust,” led by an independent manager with supreme control, in order to keep past business deals, investments and relationships from influencing their White House term.

Giving company management to his three eldest children - Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka - would still leave open the potential for Trump to make presidential decisions for their benefit. The children have already played a key part in Trump’s governing preparations, serving on the transition team now selecting key appointees and sitting in on meetings with foreign heads of state.

Mnuchin, an investor and former Goldman Sachs executive who joined Trump’s campaign in May as finance chairman, has no government experience. But in his statement announcing Mnuchin’s nomination, which is subject to Senate confirmation, Trump hailed the former private equity fund head as “a world-class financier, banker and businessman,” who has “played a key role in developing our plan to build a dynamic, booming economy that will create millions of jobs.”

Ross is an investor known as the “king of bankruptcy” for buying beaten-down companies with the potential to deliver profits. He helped shape the Trump campaign’s economic agenda, particularly its hard-line stance on the need to renegotiate or withdraw from free trade agreements. That position resonated with the working class voters who were instrumental in delivering Trump’s upset victory.

Trump said that Ross, whose nomination is also subject to Senate confirmation, “is a champion of American manufacturing and knows how to help companies succeed. Most importantly, he is one of the greatest negotiators I have ever met.”

The two expressed confidence in the incoming administration’s ability to boost economic growth as high as 4 percent a year.

Crucial to that projection would be passage of Trump’s proposed overhaul of the tax code, including streamlining individual tax rates into three brackets and reducing the corporate tax rate to 15 percent. Independent research groups have estimated the plan could cost as much as $6 trillion over the next decade. However, that analysis does not include the potential economic benefits the tax cuts could generate.

Trump’s new team spread out to give a sales pitch on Wednesday for his economic vision. In a joint interview with Ross on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Mnuchin said reforming the nation’s tax code would be Trump’s top priority and promised significant tax breaks for the middle class but no absolute cut for high-income households.

And at Trump Tower, Mnuchin told reporters that the new administration’s “number one priority is going to be the economy, get back to three to four percent growth. We believe that’s very sustainable.”

Asked how they would achieve Trump’s promise to convince U.S. companies to bring back massive amounts of cash they have stockpiled overseas because of what they see as high corporate taxes, Mnuchin said:” Well our first priority is going to be the tax plan and the tax plan has both the corporate aspects to it, lowering corporate taxes so we make U.S. companies the most competitive in the world.”

He added, without elaboration, that Trump will ensure that “we repatriate trillions of dollars back to the United States.”

Drew Harwell, Ylan Mui and Jim Tankersley contributed to this report.
After a meeting with President-elect of the United States Donald Trump, Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group pledges to invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 jobs.