Trump claims he could stop any company from moving out of the U.S. with just a 5-minute phone call

During an on-the-record interview with Time magazine last week, President-elect Donald Trump's mind flitted to his plans to keep jobs in the U.S. "Hey, Reince, I want to get a list of companies that have announced they're leaving," Trump said to incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, mid-interview with Time for his Person of the Year feature, which was published Wednesday.

Trump indicated that once he'd received that list of companies looking to ship jobs overseas, he'd take matters into his own hands. "I can call them myself," Trump said to Priebus. "Five minutes apiece. They won't be leaving. Okay?" Time's Michael Scherer observed, "He was talking as if he had just realized — at that moment, in the middle of an interview — that he had the power to do what he promised to do on the campaign trail."

While an on-the-record interview might have been an unconventional moment for the discussion, it would make sense that jobs were on Trump's mind when he sat down with Time: He had just cut a deal with Carrier, convincing the air conditioning and furnace manufacturer to keep hundreds of jobs in the U.S. that had been slated to move to Mexico.

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Though personally reaching out to each and every company might be one way for Trump to fulfill his campaign promises, The Huffington Post pointed out that the president-elect is "going to be on the phone for many hours, because Carrier's case is not at all unusual." The Huffington Post reported that "this year, the U.S. Labor Department has certified petitions for Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers at more than 1,000 firms cutting jobs due to foreign trade."