President-elect Donald Trump took credit for creating 8,000 jobs on Wednesday, although at least 3,000 of those were announced 10 days ago and there was confusion about Trump’s role in creating the others.

Speaking at his Mar-a-Largo estate in Palm Beach, Florida, during his working holiday, Trump said: “I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States. They are taking them from other countries.”

“And also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people. So that’s very exciting,” he added.

Sprint is the fourth largest mobile carrier in the US and employs some 30,000 people. In a statement Sprint said the jobs would be created or brought back by the end of its fiscal year in 2017. The jobs will be in a variety of functions across the organization including its customer care and sales.

Trump was later quizzed about the claim that Sprint jobs had been previously announced. He said that Sprint said “because of me they are doing 5,000 jobs in this country .”

OneWeb is a satellite internet provider. Ten days ago the company announced an investment from Japanese investor SoftBank that will lead to the creation of 3,000 new jobs. SoftBank’s chief executive officer, Masayoshi Son, has told Trump he will create 50,000 jobs in the US.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to do more to protect workers’ interests and create more jobs. After winning the election last month, he intervened to curb the number of jobs being sent to Mexico by Indiana-based Carrier Corporation.



Carrier was a frequent target of Trump’s during the election and the president-elect claimed to have saved 1,000 jobs by convincing the company to reverse its decision in return for tax incentives and a promise to tackle business bureaucracy.

However, 300 of those jobs were already secured and Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, Carrier’s corporate parent, subsequently told CNBC that much of the company’s new investment in the plant will go into automation that will ultimately replace some of the jobs that were just saved.

The company will also follow through on plans to shut down another factory close by in Huntington, Indiana, with the loss of 700 jobs.

Trump takes office on 20 January.

