Trump announces $54 billion South Korea investment in Alaska pipeline amid tight Senate race  

President Donald Trump announced a $54 billion investment from South Korea to develop a natural gas export project in Alaska as a tight Senate race is underway in the state.

The project is part of a larger $200 billion package negotiated as part of U.S.-South Korea trade negotiations that also includes an investment in a natural gas power plant in Texas and eight nuclear power plants.

“The colossal package of investments we are announcing today is a major step toward securing our critical energy supply chain, ensuring American energy dominance, and making our partnership with South Korea and the entire Pacific region stronger than ever before,” Trump said in the Oval Office Wednesday.

The Alaska LNG project has long been a priority of Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, who was in attendance at the announcement and is facing a narrow reelection battle against Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report considers the race to be a toss-up, and recent polling released by the Trafalgar Group found Sullivan leading by only one percentage point – in a state Trump won in 2024 by more than 13 percentage points.

Trump spent significant time during the announcement praising Sullivan, calling him a “spectacular senator” who has “had my ear for a long time.”

“Dan Sullivan, the senator of Alaska, has been a great senator, and he’s been working on this deal and other deals in Alaska, the pipeline, for almost 20 years, and we’re now getting it done,” Trump said. “I want to thank, in particular, Dan Sullivan for getting this deal done.”

The president said the new natural gas power plant in Texas will “be among the largest ever built anywhere in the world,” while the new nuclear reactors across the country will “solidify our position as the world’s leading producer of nuclear power.”

“And by building the Alaska LNG pipeline, we will deliver nearly 4 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day, and that puts us at a level that’s not comparable with anyone else,” he said. “The United States is already the largest natural gas producer and exporter in the world, and this pipeline will help us expand those exports even further.”

Trump said the pipeline will be “one of the largest energy projects in American history, and a gigantic win for the people of Alaska,” adding that it will create 12,000 construction jobs immediately – as well as 1,000 operational jobs – and will save Alaskan families up to $1,500 in energy costs annually.

The investment comes on the heels of another major manufacturing boost the Trump administration touted this week, construction of the largest steel plant in U.S. history in Iowa. Like Alaska, Iowa is hosting another tight Senate race in a state that is historically red.

Sullivan said the energy project is the “most important” in his state by far. “This is the project that is going to keep our kids and grandkids in Alaska,” he said. “This is the project that our state has been working on to try to get done for almost a half century, and the reason is, it’s going to deliver low-cost energy to Alaskans, to our churches, to our schools, our hospitals, our businesses, and we need low-cost energy.”

Trump was joined at the announcement by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and others.

“This is a historic deal that changes the future of Alaska and it changes the future of geopolitics of oil,” Burgum said, noting that the pipeline will deliver energy far beyond Alaska – to Hawaii, U.S. territories, Japan and other allies in Asia. “All of our allies can be dependent on American energy.”

(Image credit: X/The White House)