President Donald Trump said Friday he'd have to "think about" a Russian proposal to utilize Elon Musk's Boring Co. to build a 70-mile tunnel connecting Russia to the U.S. through the Bering Strait, CNBC reported.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy and head of Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund, proposed the $8 billion project — financed by Moscow and "international partners" — to construct a rail and cargo link within eight years.
Dmitriev suggested naming it the Putin-Trump Rail to symbolize "unity."
"That's an interesting one," Trump told reporters when asked about the idea amid his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.
"We'll have to think about that. I hadn't heard that."
Zelenskyy told Trump he was "not happy" with the idea when asked for his opinion.
Dmitriev, who has helped spearhead a Russian charm offensive designed to revive U.S.-Russia ties, floated the tunnel idea late Thursday after Putin spoke with Trump by phone and agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary, to try to find a way to stop the war in Ukraine.
The Bering Strait, which is 51 miles wide at its narrowest point, separates Russia's Chukotka region from Alaska. Ideas to link the two points have been around for at least 150 years, with various projects drawn up but never implemented.
"Imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and the Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump Tunnel – a 70-mile link symbolizing unity. Traditional costs are $65B+, but @boringcompany's tech could reduce it to <$8B. Let's build a future together," Dmitriev wrote to Musk on X.
Building an undersea tunnel beneath the Bering Strait would force the Boring Co. to operate in subzero temperatures in an area lacking infrastructure and prone to deep, frequent earthquakes. The company has no experience working in such extreme conditions, CNBC reported.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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