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Semiconductor investment announced at campaign rally
President Donald Trump said the Pentagon plans to invest $1.5 billion in advanced semiconductor production in North Carolina, unveiling the proposal at a midterm campaign rally in Greenville on the 20th.
Trump called it a “very, very big investment” but did not provide details about when the funding would be distributed or how it would be used.
The announcement appeared potentially connected to plans by Sibelco, a Belgian industrial minerals company, to build a manufacturing facility in the state. Shortly before Trump spoke, Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sibelco would spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a silicon and quartz processing facility. Lutnick described quartz as a basic material used in semiconductor production.
Camp Lejeune compensation
Trump also announced that his administration had paid $1 billion in compensation to veterans and their families harmed by contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps base in North Carolina. The base’s water was contaminated with carcinogens and other hazardous substances from 1948 to 2008, affecting service members and their families.
“Most of them live right here,” Trump said of the recipients.
State-focused appeals before the midterms
The announcements came two weeks before the midterm elections and were viewed as an effort to tailor federal assistance to local voters as Republicans faced difficult races.
A day earlier in Kansas, Trump announced an $8 billion Agriculture Department fuel assistance program for farmers facing diesel prices nearly twice as high as a year ago. The Republican Senate candidate there remained in a competitive race.
North Carolina presented a steeper challenge. Republican Michael Whatley trailed Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s governor from 2017 to 2025, by about 10 percentage points in several polls. The Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican Party’s largest super PAC focused on Senate races, had sharply reduced its spending in the state.
Trump nevertheless campaigned for Whatley, who chaired the Republican National Committee during Trump’s successful 2024 presidential campaign and is personally close to the president. Trump selected North Carolina for his first rally after the Texas midterm convention and returned roughly a month later.
The Greenville rally lasted about an hour and 50 minutes. As Election Day approached, Trump concentrated his attacks on Cooper, calling him a “radical-left disaster” who encouraged crime.
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