Last Updated on February 20, 2025
PALM BEACH, FL—VietJet, the first privately owned airline of Vietnam, announced $64 billion of direct foreign investment to buy latest aviation tech from American business leaders including Boeing, Pratt and Whitney, Raytheon and GE. This will create thousands and thousands of good paying jobs for Americans.
The announcement came in January, during the Indo-Pacific Summit hosted by Silicon Valley tech billionaire and organize by Vietnamese American entrepreneur, Allison Huynh. Madame Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, VietJet’s chairwoman, a billionaire business mogul, joined Huynh to make the announcement.
The direct investment from Vietnam is significant in view of the recent announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Vietnam had the third largest trade deficit with the United States, at the time of the stunning announcement at President Donald Trump’s luxurious Palm Beach home and private club.
In 2024, the U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam was $123.5 billion. With the $64 billion investment announced on February 19, 2025, the trade deficit would drop by $20-30 billion in 2025 and 2026, a significant drop in the trade deficit between the two countries.
Huynh, a former top Democrat Party fundraiser-turned-major Trump supporter and fundraiser, hosted the event on the palatial grounds of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida from January 9-11. Huynh, who has been a vocal supporter of President Trump, brought together a slew of strategic partners.
The three-day event included a visit from President Donald Trump himself, who asked Huynh to join him on the golf course.
Experts argue that it is in the United States’ geostrategic interest to increase investment opportunities with Vietnam considering the posturing of contemporary Communist China. Observers say the CCP is expanding its footprint in the region, asserting its growing military might over its neighbors. Huynh is hopeful that her summit and ongoing work will also serve the greater interests of the United States.
Huynh, who has been very public with her transition from the Democrat Party to the GOP, owns the first and original canvas of the Obama Hope poster. Her canvas was used as the primer to print the original Obama “Hope” poster, a lasting symbol of Obama’s astronomical rise to power in the mid-2000s. Huynh has left her support for Obama and the Democrats far behind, being supportive of President Trump’s campaign and his return to the White House on Fox News, The Daily Caller, and Newsweek, among others.
During the summit at Mar-a-Lago, VietJet and other Vietnamese business and civic leaders engaged with key American partners to enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the United States and Vietnam. Also in attendance was LG, the large Korean electronics conglomerate, and Aurion Capital, LG’s American investor arm.
President Trump and his administration are familiar with Madame Thao and VietJet, having previously visited the southeast Asian country in 2017, during which VietJet signed a deal with Boeing to purchase 100 737 Max aircraft. The deal was later expanded to 200 planes, with 14 scheduled for delivery in 2025.
Also in attendance were Vietnam War veterans with deep interests in the cultural, political and strategic relationship between America and Vietnam. Joe and Janine Williams, founders of the 200,000 employee-strong Keller Williams, were also in attendance.
Arthur Hayes, a popular crypto billionaire who invented perpetual futures and modern mechanism of blockchain exchanges, joined the summit, as did Congressional Representatives Lauren Boebert, Abe Hamadeh and Nick LaLota.
Huynh herself gave an emotional account of her childhood in war torn Vietnam. She was six years old and weighed 38 pounds as she and her family waited until the very last days of the war to flee.
Huynh’s family was tragically separated during the fall of Saigon. Huynh’s father was one of the pilots at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and was forced to take off without his wife, Huynh’s mother, who was pregnant with Huynh at the time. Huynh’s family got lost in the sea of people storming the gates of the embassy. Huynh and her mother would finally be reunited with her father seven years later.
Huynh emphasized the change and growth of Vietnam’s economy ever since the war. The country has vastly changed and the privatization of many of its industries such as airlines and banking.
VietJet is no stranger to American industry, having worked directly with top companies, including Boeing, GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Honeywell.
Conference attendees were bullish about additional investment opportunities in the area of affordable SMART housing, with additional collaborations topping $100-200 billion in the works from summit attendees and other Indo-Pacific. Experts say this sort of investment could create up to one million houses for working class Americans, which some have coined “Trump Homes.”
