WASILLA — President Donald Trump sought to boost Alaska’s Republican candidates during a rally in Wasilla on Tuesday, in part by touting foreign investment in a long-sought natural gas pipeline.
Trump doubled down on an announcement he made earlier this month that South Korea has agreed to invest $50 billion in constructing a natural gas pipeline in Alaska, a claim that Korean officials have refuted. Trump also announced during the Wasilla rally that Taiwan agreed to buy 30% of the liquefied natural gas produced through the project, and invest $4 billion in pipeline construction.
“All week we were working with the Taiwanese government, and they agreed to buy 30% of everything produced on that line, and they will invest $4.4 billion on top of the Koreans to make sure this line gets built,” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who briefly appeared on stage with Trump in Wasilla.
Lutnick said that Trump had “federalized” the project. It is not immediately clear what he meant; a majority of the project is owned by Glenfarne, a private company, with the remainder owned by the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., a state agency.
Glenfarne did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Frank Richards, president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., said after Trump’s speech that Taiwan’s state-owned CPC Corporation last year agreed to purchase 30% of the project’s liquefied natural gas. The agreement is non-binding.
“Negotiations have continued and are nearing conclusion on price and term for that gas,” which amounts to 6 million tons annually, Richards said in a text.
He said that Lutnick and the U.S. Commerce Department have been directly negotiating with Korea and Taiwan, and the state agency had been waiting to see the outcome of those discussions.
“I was pleased to hear of their agreement and commitment,” Richards said, referring to Lutnick’s comments at the rally.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Taiwan’s economic ministry had no immediate comment.
[In photos: Trump rallies for Republican candidates and sparks protests in visit to Alaska]
Alaska leaders have long advocated for the construction of a pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska, in order to export the gas and use it to power Alaskans’ homes. But the cost of construction has been a barrier to moving ahead.
Trump’s promises to bring the project to fruition have become the centerpiece of his efforts to boost U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican incumbent who is locked in a competitive race with a well-funded opponent, Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, who received more votes than Sullivan did in the open primary.
Alaska’s Senate race is seen as one of a few contests that could determine control of the chamber after the midterm elections.
Trump called Sullivan “one of the best senators that you have” and credited him with advancing the gas pipeline.
Peltola has said she, too, supports the construction of the gas pipeline.
Trump delivered a sprawling, nearly 90-minute speech in which he pardoned Alaskans convicted of violating the Clean Air Act; derided transgender people and immigrants; and repeatedly denigrated Democrats, using the term “Dumocrats.”
During the appearance in Wasilla, a GOP stronghold, Trump also stumped for U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, a Republican incumbent facing independent challenger Bill Hill; and for Bernadette Wilson, one of three Republicans running for governor. Trump endorsed Wilson hours before he took the stage, and called on the other two Republicans in the race — Dave Bronson and Treg Taylor, who were also in attendance at the rally — to drop out.
During the rally, Trump repeated a promise that if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, he would deliver $5,000 dividend payments to U.S. adults. It is not clear how the dividends would be paid for or whether they are politically feasible.
Cost of living and high prices have become a centerpiece of Alaska’s statewide races, as they have across the country. Protests outside the rally Tuesday sought to draw attention to how Trump’s policies have raised prices for Alaskans, including through tariffs and the war in Iran.
On stage, Sullivan said that “the conflict in the Middle East is temporary — the true forever war is the national Democrats’ war against Alaska oil and gas and our jobs.”
The rally drew a full house, with thousands in the audience by midday Tuesday.
Barbara Adams, a Chugiak resident who lined up to get into the venue hours before Trump arrived, said that she thinks the presidential visit could help turn out Alaska voters.
“Because there’s actually a lot of people I’ve talked to that don’t realize that early voting starts Monday,” said Adams.
Outside of the rally, hundreds of other Alaskans gathered to protest his visit.
In Wasilla, protesters waved flags and signs along the Parks Highway at Newcomb Park, in a line that stretched the length of three football fields.
One protester waved a “F— Trump” sign. Another took to a microphone and shouted at passing drivers, denouncing “pedophile” Trump.
Karen Williams, a retired teacher from Anchorage, who said she’s an independent, stood along the highway waving a sign that “Left or right, we can all see wrong.”
“We’re sliding into a dictatorship very quickly, and if we don’t start standing up and speaking up, we may not have a democracy,” she said.
“I wanted to make sure my grandchildren know that I did not stay silent,” she said.
Down the road, rally-goers hopped on buses. Hundreds of parked cars stretched along Wasilla roads for some 2 miles.
During the rally, Trump pardoned two Alaskans who pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Clean Air Act. Zachary John Czubak and Patrick Thomas Fleming, co-owners of a vehicle repair ship, tampered with and removed emission controls from at least numerous vehicles between July 2019 and September 2020, according to federal prosecutors.
Trump called them on stage while signing their pardons, along with Mac Spurlock, who Trump pardoned earlier this year after he faced similar charges.
“They wanted to put them in jail for 10 years because they fixed an engine. How sick!” Trump said, to deafening cheers from the crowd.
Trump carried the Wasilla district where he spoke Tuesday with more than 75% of the vote in 2024. Republican leaders said it was appropriate for him to go to the part of Alaska where he has the greatest support.
“Wasilla had the largest turnout for him, so I think it’s showing support for his base,” said Adams, one of the rally-goers.
Eric Croft, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, said that “it’s chickenshit for Trump to come up, bypass perfectly good, big auditoriums in Anchorage, with probably double the amount of space.”
At another event Tuesday that drew more than 100 people to the Delaney Park Strip in Anchorage, Hill, the independent challenger to Begich, told a crowd that Alaskans should be “pissed off” over high fuel prices caused in part by Trump’s tariff policies and the Iran war.
“We have representation that votes for the party line 100% of the time,” Hill said. “That is not Alaska. Our representation should feel our pain. They should work for Alaskans every single day, every single vote, and if all you have is to vote for the party line, then you do not represent us.”
“We need passionate leadership that votes against this war in Iran, (and the) billions of dollars spent on another never-ending war in the Middle East,” he said. “We need leadership that’s going to vote against the tariffs, which have been a tax on the American people.”
[Correction: The story has been updated to reflect that Trump pardoned two Alaskans on Tuesday, not three.]
