Trump tells Davos he will demand lower interest rates, oil prices
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US President Donald Trump speaking by video link at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan 23.
PHOTO: AFP
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DAVOS, Switzerland - US President Donald Trump demanded that Opec lower oil prices and that the world drop interest rates, in a speech to global business and political leaders.
He also warned them they will face tariffs if they make their products anywhere but in the US.
“I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately. And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world,” Mr Trump said via video to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan 23.
“I’m also going to ask Saudi Arabia and Opec (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) to bring down the cost of oil.”
The remarks, Mr Trump’s first to global leaders in his four-day-old presidency, bolster the message that his second term will eschew free market norms inside the US and out.
Despite robust comments on the tariffs he wants to put in place, he did not provide specifics at a time when markets are on edge over his plans.
Oil prices turned negative as Mr Trump spoke, while the euro dipped and the US dollar swung between gains and losses against a basket of foreign currencies.
The S&P 500 benchmark of US stocks rose to a near all-time high.
Compliments and criticism
Mr Trump spoke to about 3,000 Davos attendees, who cheered as his face appeared on the screen. The President, a businessman whose first elected office was the White House, listed the rapid-fire changes he had made since his swearing-in on Jan 20 that have upended US government policies on diversity, climate change and immigration.
In a subsequent conversation with conference attendees, including Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan and Blackstone Group chief Stephen Schwarzman, the US President’s remarks veered between compliments and criticism.
At one point, Trump chided Mr Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase for not providing banking services to conservatives, without offering evidence or specifics of any wrongdoing. The banks were quick to issue statements saying that was untrue.
Mr Moynihan ignored the accusation, instead complimenting Mr Trump on the US hosting the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
Mr Trump’s address was an unusual moment, affording a handful of business executives an opportunity to publicly question the US President on issues that affect their businesses or, in some cases, their specific investments, projects and interests.
Some of his harshest criticism was reserved for traditional US allies Canada and the European Union, which he threatened again with new tariffs, while berating them for allowing trade surpluses with the US.
“One thing we’re going to be demanding is we’re going to be demanding respect from other nations. Canada. We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We’re not going to have that any more,” he said.
He sharply criticised his predecessor, Mr Joe Biden, and policies that have dominated in Davos for years, from climate change to diversity. Former US secretary of state John Kerry, who served under Mr Biden, visibly winced as he listened.
Some Davos attendees were complimentary of his direct style afterwards while others gently disagreed with his remarks.
“It’s not particularly strange that you want to foster growth in your own country,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters after Mr Trump’s speech. “But of course, we believe that we are better off in the world of free trade, where we exchange goods and services openly.”
Nuclear arms and Putin
Mr Trump promised to reduce inflation with a mix of tariffs, deregulation and tax cuts along with his crackdown on illegal immigration and commitment to making the US a hub of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies and fossil fuels.
“The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth, and we’re going to use it,” Mr Trump said. “Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, it will make the United States a manufacturing superpower.”
He said he was seeking talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine and wants Russia and China to work towards nuclear arms reductions.
Mr Trump also repeated a string of familiar falsehoods – that the US had the cleanest air and water during his first term and that there was a “Green New Deal” in the US that he had repealed.
Since taking office, Mr Trump has withdrawn the US from the World Health Organisation
He has moved quickly to crack down on immigration, expand domestic energy production, and has threatened to impose steep tariffs on the EU, China, Mexico and Canada.
He also pardoned more than 1,500 supporters who attacked the US Capitol
Mr Trump is moving to dismantle diversity programmes within the US government and is pressuring the private sector to do so as well. That has left some in Davos searching for new words to describe workplace practices that they say are essential to their businesses. REUTERS
