WASHINGTON (From news reports) -- President Donald Trump said Friday that Patriots owner Bob Kraft called to thank him for the tax bill, and that Kraft is building "a tremendous paper mill" in North Carolina.

"A friend of mine, Bob Kraft, called me last night he said this tax bill is incredible," Trump said, via the Boston Globe. "He owns the New England Patriots, but he's in the paper business and he said based on this tax bill he just wanted to let me know that he's going to buy a big plant in the great state of North Carolina and he's going to build a tremendous paper mill there or paper products plant."

In addition to the New England Patriots and New England Revolution, The Kraft Group owns several major paper and companies, including Rand-Whitney and International Forest Products. A spokesperson for Kraft could not immediately comment on the president's claim.

Kraft, who is a close friend to Trump and donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration celebration, had previously condemned the president's remarks about firing players who knelt during the anthem.

Back in January, shortly after Trump was inaugurated, Kraft explained his longtime friendship with the 45th president.

"When [Kraft's wife] Myra died [in 2011], Melania [Trump] and Donald came up to the funeral in our synagogue, then they came for memorial week to visit with me," Kraft told Gary Myers of the New York Daily News at the time. "Then he called me once a week for the whole year, the most depressing year of my life when I was down and out. He called me every week to see how I was doing, invited me to things, tried to lift my spirits. He was one of five or six people that were like that. I remember that."

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