An economist called out a bold economic claim made by former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) since February 2025, and backed by President Donald Trump, saying anyone who believes it is “completely economically illiterate.”
The remark came from Jessica Riedl, a budget and tax fellow at the Brookings Institution, in the Tax Policy Center, who criticized Loeffler’s assertion during a cabinet meeting video clip that was shared online.
Loeffler praised Trump, saying, “The $18 trillion you brought in is creating an economic boom like none we’ve ever seen before. We are going to have 7% GDP growth. GDP now is probably underestimating where it is in 4Q.”
Riedl quickly shut down the claim on X, writing:
“You have to be completely economically illiterate to believe that there has been an $18 trillion influx of foreign investment. (Which would have created 60% GDP growth and required filling 100 million new jobs out of the 7.5 million unemployed workers).”
The Origins of the $18 Trillion Claim
The figure Loeffler cited is not new. Trump has regularly claimed that trillions of dollars are pouring into the United States in the form of investment, frequently floating the number around $18 trillion.
That number varies depending on the speech, sometimes rising or falling without explanation.
But according to fact-checkers like PolitiFact, the claim is not just exaggerated, it’s flat-out false.
Trump has repeatedly framed future corporate plans, trade pledges, or long-term infrastructure intentions as if they were already secured investments.
In reality, much of the White House’s own accounting at the time showed a far smaller total: about $5.1 trillion, including $2.1 trillion from corporate announcements and $3 trillion in country pledges.
What the Numbers Actually Show
Even those figures include years-long aspirations and memorandums of understanding that may never result in real investment.
PolitiFact noted that one of Trump’s earlier claims in May said the U.S. had “secured close to $10 trillion,” yet that figure outpaced the documented total by nearly $5 trillion.
The real issue, experts say, isn’t just that the math doesn’t work. It’s because Trump keeps making the claim. After all, it serves a political purpose.
Saying trillions of dollars are pouring into the country creates the impression of an economic boom unlike anything before.
Experts say big numbers help Trump sound unbeatable and shift attention away from less favorable economic topics like inflation or federal deficits.
Political Strategy Over Economic Reality
There’s also a pattern in Trump’s messaging style. He often treats potential future outcomes as current wins, which allows him to frame long-term plans as present-day achievements.
This strategy is hard to disprove quickly, especially when the claim is vague.
Trump rarely defines what kind of investment he’s referring to. Sometimes it’s foreign direct investment.
Other times, it includes domestic corporate spending, trade agreements, or future purchases.
The ambiguity makes the $18 trillion figure difficult to fact-check on the spot, even though experts say it doesn’t hold up.
That ambiguity played out in the cabinet meeting clip where Loeffler spoke.
She tied the supposed $18 trillion to booming GDP growth, deregulation, and falling interest rates, saying these factors were boosting small businesses.
Why the Claim Doesn’t Add Up
But Riedl pointed out that if the U.S. really had received that amount of foreign investment, it would result in about 60% GDP growth, a number completely disconnected from current trends, and require creating roughly 100 million new jobs.
For context, about 7.5 million Americans are currently unemployed.
The exaggeration fits with Trump’s long-standing habit of using large numbers to project dominance.
PolitiFact and other outlets have tracked years of inflated figures, from crowd sizes to economic stats.
According to experts cited in those fact-checks, big investment claims are often performative and designed to overpromise.
Spectacle Over Substance
In the end, there’s no verified evidence that the U.S. economy has seen an $18 trillion foreign investment influx.
The claim continues to circulate because it sounds good politically, even if it crumbles under scrutiny.
And in the words of Riedl, believing it means being “completely economically illiterate.”