Trump takes credit for new domestic jobs at Sprint

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday touted announcements from two companies that plan to hire workers in the U.S. as evidence that confidence in the domestic markets is booming as he prepares to take office.

Speaking to reporters outside of his Mar-a-lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump said management at the phone company Sprint, which will add 5,000 people to its U.S. workforce, and OneWeb, a new technology company that plans to bring on 3,000 workers, called to inform him of their decisions on Wednesday.

The new jobs at both companies appear to be related to an announcement Trump made earlier this month about a $50 billion U.S. investment by Japanese tech company SoftBank, which said it will introduce 50,000 new jobs into the country; representatives from both companies told ABC News that the new jobs are included in the SoftBank deal.

{mosads}Trump said Wednesday that SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son was instrumental in orchestrating the round of new hires at both Sprint and OneWeb. Softbank owns 80 percent of Sprint, and OneWeb announced last week that it would hire 3,000 additional employees based on financing provided by the banking giant.

“We just had some very good news, because of what’s happening and the spirit and the hope, I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they’re going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States,” Trump told the assembled press in Palm Beach.

“They’re going to be taking them from other countries, bringing them back to the United States, and [Son] and some other people were very much involved in that so I want to thank them. And also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people, so that’s very exciting.

“So we have a combination of Sprint for 5,000 jobs, and that’s coming from all over the world back into the United States, which is a nice change, and also OneWeb, 3,000 jobs, that’s a new company.”

Since winning last month’s election, Trump has been publicly engaging with companies, pressuring some to keep jobs in the U.S. or to lower their fees for government-related projects.

Members of Trump’s incoming administration worked with the heating and air conditioning company Carrier to keep an estimated 1,000 jobs from moving to Mexico. The company received about $7 million in tax breaks to stay in Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana, according to reports.

Trump has also taken credit for positive developments in the U.S. financial markets, saying this week that his friendly approach to business has given companies confidence to invest in the U.S. again.

The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index for December surged nearly four points to 113.7, THE HIGHEST LEVEL IN MORE THAN 15 YEARS! Thanks Donald!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016