Trump tries to boost Sullivan campaign with another bogus gas line claim
Just in time to help the reelection campaign of Sen. Dan Sullivan, Donald Trump plans to announce again that Korea has agreed to put up tens of billions to build the gas pipeline.
This is nothing but a campaign stunt aimed at duping the voters in Alaska. It’s the latest version of “Mexico will pay for the wall.” It is also a prelude of what to expect during Trump’s visit to campaign for Sullivan.
Nothing will come of this announcement, but the election will be a distant memory before that becomes clear.
Alaska news organizations should not repeat the mistakes they have made before in treating what Trump claims about the gas pipeline as trustworthy. Nothing he has said about it since the start of his second term has turned out to be true.
Major Korean news organizations are already disputing the Trump claims.
“Trump is expected to unveil the investment as early as Wednesday, even though Seoul has left the project open for further negotiations with Washington amid questions about its commercial viability. That has fueled concerns that Trump could treat the unresolved proposal as a done deal and trumpet it to Alaska voters ahead of the November midterms,” the Korea JoongAng Daily said.
“‘Washington pressed hard for the Alaska LNG project, but my understanding is that the [memorandum of understanding] simply commits the two sides to ‘explore the possibility’ of pursuing it,” said a lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee. ‘Korea has left itself the option of not investing if the commercial case does not hold up.’”
The announcement will be no more credible than all the declarations Trump has made since the start of 2025 saying the Japanese and Koreans had agreed to build and pay for the pipeline.
But rest assured that Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich the Third, who are both facing serious challengers in November, will hype the Trump claim as real, claiming their share of the credit for getting the gas pipeline going.
Suzanne Downing, who waves poms-poms for the Republicans, is hailing this as a miracle brought to us by the “awesome team” of “Donald, Mike, Dan, and Nick. And let’s include Glenfarne.” But not Lisa.
Sullivan, Begich the Third and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have been invited to the White House for the announcement so they can stand behind Trump and bask in his glory.
They have treated all the previous bogus Trump gas pipeline claims as real and started victory dancing in early 2025. They made multiple predictions that the pipe would be stockpiled in Alaska by now and construction would be taking place.
There are no binding financial commitments. All we have are promises from Trump, which no one can take to the bank.
Let the public see exactly what South Korea has agreed to in writing. Show us the money.
Regardless of what Trump claims, we won’t see anything concrete from South Korea, just amorphous diplomatic happy talk about the need to keep negotiating and how wonderful it would be to have a pipeline.
What was noteworthy Tuesday was Washington, D.C. news coverage from unnamed sources saying Trump planned to announce a triumph once more over the gas pipeline gods, while the news coverage from Korea said nothing was definite.
“It appears highly likely that President Trump's announcement has been planned to help drive Sullivan to victory,” SBS News, a Korean company, reported.
“As the South Korean government has classified the Alaska LNG project as a subject for future discussions, attention is focused on how President Trump's announcement will be formulated.”
The Trump administration has been pushing South Korea to invest, but South Korea stopped short of a binding deal, various news outlets reported in Korea.
The South Koreans are not stupid and they don’t want to risk offending the tariff king, but they are not signing up to build the pipeline. They won’t dare say anything that direct, however.
This is all about getting Sullivan and Begich the Third sent back to Congress and keeping up the pretense that a real deal has been struck.
Let’s look back at some of Trump’s gas pipeline claims.
On February 7, 2025, Trump claimed that Japan was ready to sign a joint venture for Alaska LNG.
“We look forward to working with President Trump, Japanese officials, and others to put project agreements in place ASAP,” said Dunleavy.
Begich the Third referred to a “potential joint venture” and a partnership with Japan.
There was no joint venture. There still is no joint venture.
In March 2025, Trump said that Japan, South Korea and other nations want to “be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each” for an Alaska natural gas pipeline.
“It will be truly spectacular. It’s all set to go. The permitting has gotten (sic),” Trump said.
There were no promises of trillions. It was not spectacular. It is not ready to go.
“President Trump’s support for AKLNG will ensure this massive LNG project is completed, and clean Alaska gas supplies our Asian allies and our Alaskan residents for decades to come!” Gov. Mike Dunleavy beamed on March 4, 2025.
Sullivan said the same day that “the stars are aligned like never before for the @AlaskaLNG project—a decades-long energy dream for Alaska.”
The stars are not aligned. Trump’s claims ensure nothing.
In April 2025, Trump claimed that South Korea was already in a joint venture for the pipeline.
In July 2025, Trump claimed at the White House that Japan is “forming a joint venture with us at, in Alaska, as you know for the LNG.”
“They’re all set to make that deal now so I think it’s good.”
“We’re gonna make a deal with Japan on the LNG in Alaska,” Trump claimed.
There was no deal with Japan on Alaska LNG.
On October 29, 2025, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed Trump would direct South Korea to invest in the Alaska LNG project.
After meeting with President XI in Korea last fall, Trump said that China had joined the list of nations that wanted to pay for the LNG pipeline.
"In fact, a very large scale transaction may take place concerning the purchase of Oil and Gas from the Great State of Alaska. Chris Wright, Doug Burgum, and our respective Energy teams will be meeting to see if such an Energy Deal can be worked out," Trump said.
After the October meeting with the Chinese president, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed to Fox News that the pipeline was already under construction.
He said Japan “will be part of a very large pipeline project that the U.S. is constructing in Alaska. The Koreans may be part of that. And President Xi unilaterally in the meeting today brought up that the Chinese might like to be part of it. So it’s energy dominance like we haven’t seen before in the U.S.,” Bessent said on October 30, 2025.
Sullivan said he was not surprised by the Chinese enthusiasm for the project, but warned that it might be too late because the Koreans, the Japanese and the others had already agreed to buy gas. (There were no binding agreements then or now.)
“The Alaska LNG project is making huge progress right now. And I think the big headline from the president’s trip wasn’t what Xi Jinping was asking about energy from Alaska. It was the progress that the Trump administration made in Japan, in Korea on our big LNG project,” Sullivan said last October.
“So with regard to China, get in line. There’s a lot of Asian countries that want American LNG from Alaska,” Sen. Dan Sullivan said. “It’s exciting. It’s strategic. It’s gonna help our country. It’s gonna help our allies. And it’s gonna help my state.”
Marking his first year as president for the second time, Trump claimed that one of his achievements was getting the Alaska LNG project going.
“Launched a massive Alaska pipeline project to export natural gas to Asia. We made a deal with South Korea and Japan that gives us money, the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before,” he said.
He’s right. Nobody’s ever seen any of that money.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy highlighted Trump’s lie in his 2026 State of the State speech: “Just two days ago, on the one-year anniversary of his second term, President Trump again singled out the Alaska LNG Project as a national priority. President Trump said, and I quote, that he has secured ‘unprecedented funding’ from South Korea and Japan through his trade deals to develop the Alaska LNG Project.”
The claims that the Alaska LNG pipeline will succeed because it is Donald Trump’s favorite project depended on his efforts to force Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and other nations to pay for it.
This mob-boss mentality has not worked, though Dunleavy, Sullivan, Begich and others have been willing to believe anything Trump says.
Some of those who don’t know the score
Thomas Dans, a MAGA promoter and Trump’s pick as head of the Arctic Research Commission, claimed the alleged South Korean investment in Alaska LNG is the “largest investment ever into Alaska, America's Arctic and the US Energy Industry.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson, who is skipping many debates with the other candidates, also naively concludes that Trump’s announcement is legit.
Dave Bronson, another GOP candidate, said he wants Trump to “federalize” the gas line project, putting the federal government in charge of one of the world’s largest construction projects.
Turning the alleged private sector project into a subsidized federal public works project is an exceptionally dumb idea.
Bronson claims that Trump has the chance to fix everything that costs too much in Alaska by subsidizing a gas pipeline.
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Trump’s statements ensure nothing.
The stars are not aligned.
Don’t put any trust in the Trump claims that he will be able to order the Koreans to invest in the gas pipeline.