Trump touts 8,000 new jobs, criticizes Obama as ‘inflammatory’

PALM BEACH — Donald Trump on Wednesday touted plans by a Japanese mogul to bring 8,000 jobs to the United States.

They could be the first of the 50,000 jobs tech billionaire Masayoshi Son promised to create after meeting with the president-elect earlier in December.

In the grand scheme of the economy, the jobs announcement is unlikely to have a major impact. Still, it’s another example of how Trump is trying to stoke voters’ belief that he is actively fighting for their well-being.

The announcement came during a whirlwind day in which Trump accused President Barack Obama of throwing up “inflammatory” roadblocks during the transition of power.

Son is the founder and chief executive of SoftBank, one of Japan’s largest technology outfits. He owns the U.S. mobile carrier Sprint, which Trump said Wednesday would be moving 5,000 jobs “back” to the United States. Son also controls OneWeb, which Trump said would hire 3,000 workers.

It was unclear whether the president-elect was referring to a Dec. 6 commitment by Son to invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 jobs.

Trump said the addition of 8,000 jobs was “because of what’s happening and the spirit and the hope.”

Still, the U.S. job market has been robust for much of 2016. Employers have added more than 2.2 million jobs over the past 12 months — a sign of economic health that pre-dates Trump’s presidential victory.

The Sprint jobs announcement came after tensions rose and fell Wednesday between Trump and Obama. Trump has made it clear that it didn’t sit well with him when Obama recently boasted that he would have won the election if he’d been running.

“Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “Thought it was going to be a smooth transition — NOT!”

Later, however, journalists at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida asked him about the tweet and how he thought the transition was going.

He said: “I think very, very smoothly. It’s very good. You don’t think so?”

Even later Wednesday, Trump told reporters he had spoken by phone with Obama and said the two “had a very nice conversation.”

Trump also met with a number of medical executives, likely for discussions about Obama’s signature heath care plan.

They include Mayo Clinic CEO John Noseworthy; the head of Johns Hopkins medical center, Paul Rothman; and the head of the Cleveland Clinic, Toby Cosgrove.