US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to global elites in a video message to the World Economic Forum on Thursday: Make your product in the United States or pay tariffs.
Broadcast on a giant screen in the Swiss Alpine village of Davos, Trump received a standing ovation from political and business A-listers who had been eagerly awaiting his appearance all week.
Speaking from the White House, Trump touted his plans to cut taxes, deregulate industries and crack down on illegal immigration.
But he also had a strong message.
“Come make your product in America and we’ll give you the lowest taxes of any country in the world,” Trump said.
“But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, quite simply you have to pay tariffs.”
In his wide-ranging speech, Trump made a connection between the war in Ukraine and oil prices.
Trump said he would ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce crude oil prices.
“If the price went down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” he said.
The US leader then asked questions from top executives of Bank of America, Blackstone investment firm, Spanish group Banco Sanchez and French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies.
Trump has always been a top attraction at Davos, making waves in two in-person appearances during his first term in office in 2018 and 2020.
But this year it was more difficult to attend because the forum began on Monday, the day of his inauguration in Washington.
Hundreds of people stood in queue to hear his speech. The audience included European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
Trump fans
Argentina’s liberal President Javier Meili, one of the Republican president’s biggest cheerleaders on the world stage, took the stage hours before Trump and delivered a fiery speech against the “mental virus of woke ideology.”
Miley said Argentina was “re-embracing the idea of freedom” and “I believe that’s what President Trump will do in this new America”.
He praised like-minded leaders such as Trump, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
“Gradually, there has been an international coalition of all countries that want to be free and that believe in the ideas of freedom,” he said.
He also defended his “dear friend” Elon Musk.
The American billionaire and Trump ally caused a stir this week by making a hand gesture at an inauguration ceremony for the US president that was compared to a Nazi salute.
Miley said Musk, who heads Tesla and SpaceX, has been “unfairly vilified by woke people in recent hours for an innocent gesture whose only meaning is … his gratitude to the people”.
‘Let’s not hyperventilate’
Trump had already told Davos what was going to happen following his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the first day of the WEF.
He has threatened to impose tariffs on China, the European Union, Mexico and Canada, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord and renewed his claim on the Panama Canal, to name a few examples.
His plans to cut taxes, reduce the size of the US federal government, and deregulate industries have been heard sympathetically by many businesses, although economists warn that these policies could reignite inflation.
US trading partners and rivals had a chance to react in Davos earlier this week as they prepared for the second round of his America First policies.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned: “There are no winners in a trade war.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels is ready for talks with Trump.
But he also underlined the EU’s separate policy from them on climate and said the bloc would stick to the Paris Agreement.
World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called for calm during a WEF panel discussion on tariffs on Thursday, warning that tit-for-tat tariffs would be “devastating” for the world economy.
“Please don’t hyperventilate,” she quipped. “I know we’re here to discuss tariffs. I’m saying to everyone: Can we also be quiet?”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
