Trump announced Taiwan will buy 30 percent of gas from a proposed Alaska pipeline and invest $4.4 billion, calling it one of the biggest deals ever.
President Donald Trump told a Wasilla, Alaska crowd Tuesday evening that Taiwan has agreed to purchase 30 percent of the natural gas shipped each year through a long-proposed 807-mile pipeline, with the Taiwanese government also putting $4.4 billion into the project.
The Washington Free Beacon reported the announcement came at a local events center rally meant to boost Sen. Dan Sullivan (R.) and Rep. Nick Begich (R.) as they seek reelection. Trump cast the Taiwan commitment as the kind of commercial backing that can finally move a project first floated more than two decades ago.
He did not mince words about the scale.
Trump told the crowd:
"It's one of the biggest deals ever made."
He also said:
"It's one of the biggest commitments in history for anything."
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick helped put the arrangement together and attended the rally. Afterward he described the Taiwan piece as a “really good start.”
Developer Glenfarne Group has said it will not build until commercial buyers commit to purchase 80 percent of the pipeline’s 20 million metric-ton-per-year capacity. As of September, the company said the project was still three million metric tons per year short of that mark.
Trump presented the Taiwan purchase share as a direct answer to that gap. He told the audience the deal “guarantees success” and added that the commitment is “going to end up being much higher than that.”
He also said the federal government had already approved “every single permit” the pipeline needs.
“You can start tonight,” Trump said.
Last month he announced that South Korea had agreed to invest more than $50 billion in the same project. Together, the Korea investment and the new Taiwan offtake-and-cash package give the Alaska LNG effort the kind of foreign commercial weight energy developers usually chase for years.
The state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corporation holds a 25 percent stake in the project. The corporation has projected 11,053 construction jobs and 5,886 operational jobs, plus tens of billions of dollars in gross domestic product for Alaska.
Trump said the finished line would save a typical Alaska household more than $2,000 a year on energy bills. That claim lands in a state where electricity costs run nearly double the national average and pump prices sit near $5 a gallon.
High power and fuel costs are not abstract for families and small businesses in Alaska. They show up every month on light bills and at the pump. A north-to-south gas line that finally moves volume is the practical answer Trump is selling, more supply, more local work, and pressure off household budgets.
Shortly after taking office in 2025, Trump ordered his administration to fast-track the Alaska LNG pipeline. At the Wasilla rally he tied that order to a broader Alaska energy push: freeing tens of millions of acres in the National Petroleum Reserve and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, and approving permits for a central Alaskan road that would open more mining projects.
Sullivan and Begich, Trump said, played an instrumental role in shaping those policies and in pressing for the pipeline itself. Both are locked in tight races. A screen at the rally read, “Alaska, vote on November 3.”
Trump warned that if Republicans lose their majorities, Democrats would “viciously crush Alaskan energy.” The line drew the contrast he wanted: build the line and open the resource base, or watch federal policy choke it off again.
The crowd answered with chants of “Build the line.”
Trump also used the stop to announce pardons for Zachary Czubak, Patrick Fleming, and Michael Hanzuk. The three Alaska autobody shop owners had been convicted of violating environmental laws after removing emission control devices from customer vehicles for a fee.
Czubak spoke onstage.
He said:
"We are not criminals, we are not trying to hurt anybody. We want to help Alaskans. We want to help people with diesel trucks and vehicles."
The pardons fit the night’s larger theme. Trump cast federal environmental enforcement that hits working shop owners as the same mindset that has stalled energy infrastructure for years. Builders, drillers, and mechanics, in this telling, should not be treated as the problem.
Taiwan’s 30 percent purchase pledge and $4.4 billion investment, stacked on South Korea’s earlier $50 billion-plus commitment, give the Alaska project two major Indo-Pacific partners with a direct stake in seeing gas move. Lutnick’s “really good start” line understated the politics: foreign buyers writing large checks make it harder for opponents to dismiss the line as a paper plan.
Glenfarne still needs the full 80 percent commercial cover before it builds. Trump’s public claim is that Taiwan’s share, on top of prior interest, puts success within reach and that every federal permit is already in hand. The state corporation’s job and GDP figures remain the local yardstick, thousands of construction and operating positions and a multi-billion-dollar hit to Alaska’s economy if the pipe is laid and filled.
For voters tracking grocery and fuel costs, the pitch is simple. Alaska sits on massive energy wealth while residents pay some of the country’s highest prices. A completed LNG line would turn stranded northern gas into lower bills, export revenue, and steady work. That is the bargain Trump put on stage in Wasilla.
Republicans who want affordable energy and more American production now have a clear test: back the lawmakers who helped clear the path, or hand the next Congress to a party Trump says will shut that path down.
