- President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that his daughter Ivanka, a White House adviser, had created 14 million jobs since 2017.
- The figure is more than double the 6 million US jobs created since Trump’s inauguration.
- Ivanka Trump cochairs a White House workforce advisory council, which has secured pledges from businesses to create more jobs.
- It is possible that Trump confused the promise of 14 million more hypothetical jobs for the creation of actual jobs.
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US President Donald Trump credited his daughter Ivanka with creating 14 million jobs in the US during his presidency, even though figures show the entire country has gained only 6 million jobs in that time.
Trump made the claim in a speech at the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday in which he praised Ivanka for her advisory work at the White House.
He said his daughter had created 14 million jobs since he took office in January 2017, far exceeding her goal of 500,000.
US government figures, however, show that the total number of jobs added to the US economy since during Trump’s presidency is only about 6 million.
"When she started this, 2 1/2 years ago, her goal was 500,000 jobs," Trump said, referring to her role as cochair of a White House workforce policy advisory board.
"She's now created 14 million jobs," he continued, adding: "Fourteen million from 500,000. Fourteen million and going up."
During @realDonaldTrump's speech at the Economic Club of NY, he mentioned the #PledgeToAmericasWorkers and the great work that has been accomplished. An initial goal of 500,000 opps pledged to now over 14 million! CC: @IvankaTrump pic.twitter.com/vMOCivj4Tv
— Carolina Hurley 45 Archived (@CLH45) November 12, 2019
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on Trump's claim.
The workforce policy advisory board on which Ivanka Trump serves works with private companies, encouraging them to open up training positions.
Trump falsely/nonsensically claims Ivanka Trump has "created 14 million jobs" through the Pledge to America's Workers. These are education and training opportunities, many of them for existing employees and many planned before/entirely independent of the Pledge.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 12, 2019
According to a February statement on the White House website, the initiative aims to bridge "a gap between skills of those seeking to enter the workforce possess and those sought by employers."
In the statement, the White House said the 200 companies that had signed up to the program had collectively pledged to create "more than 6.5 million education, training, and skill-building opportunities over the next five years."
By October, the number of companies involved in the plan had risen to 350, and the number of training and educational opportunities pledged to 14 million, the Associated Press reported.
This figure for hypothetical future positions could be the one Trump touted as jobs already delivered.
A CNN report found that some companies taking part in the plan were pledging to create the same number of training places they had planned on creating anyway before the plan was announced.