WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is taking credit for persuading TransCanada Corp. to withdraw a hefty lawsuit against the U.S. government over the previous administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. But the Canadian company says its bid for compensation for the stalled project is merely suspended, as it has been for weeks.
Trump’s account, to Republican donors Tuesday night, was one of several from the president claiming achievements that have yet to happen. A look at a few:
TRUMP: The president said he talked Tuesday morning with his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, and asked him about the TransCanada dispute. “He said, sir, they dropped the suit,” Trump said. “Good.”
The president said he had told Cohn earlier to convey a threat to TransCanada: “I’m approving the pipeline and they are suing us for $14 billion and I’ve already approved it, right? … Go back to them and tell them if they don’t drop the suit immediately, we are going to terminate the deal. You know, being president gives you great power, right?”
THE FACTS: TransCanada’s bid for compensation, filed to a panel that arbitrates disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement, is still on the books. “The NAFTA challenge remains suspended,” TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha told AP in Toronto on Wednesday. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which is handling the matter, lists the case as having been suspended in late February. TransCanada launched the challenge last year after the Obama administration turned against the project on environmental grounds.