Written by Echo Wang, Marwa Rashad, Trevor Hunnicutt
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – In a speech to global business and political leaders, U.S. President Donald Trump called for lower oil prices from OPEC and lower global interest rates and warned that products produced anywhere other than the U.S. would be subject to tariffs. .
“I will call for an immediate cut in interest rates,” Trump said in a video from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. “And equally, we need to cut interest rates around the world.” He added, “We will also ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower oil prices.”
These remarks, Trump’s first to world leaders four days after taking office, reinforce the message that his second term will eschew free-market norms both inside and outside the United States.
Despite his strong comments about the tariffs he would like to introduce, he did not provide any specifics, leaving markets uneasy about his plans.
Due to President Trump’s remarks, oil prices turned negative, the euro fell, and the U.S. dollar fluctuated between gains and losses against a basket of foreign currencies. U.S. stock market benchmarks rose to near record highs.
praise and criticism
Trump spoke to about 3,000 Davos attendees who cheered as his face appeared on a large screen. President Trump, a businessman first elected to the White House, on Monday listed drastic changes since taking office that have upended U.S. government policies on diversity, climate change and immigration.
In follow-up conversations with conference attendees, including Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Blackstone Group (NYSE:) CEO Stephen Schwarzman, the U.S. president’s comments veered between praise and criticism.
At one point, Trump accused Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:) of underbanking conservatives, without providing any specifics or evidence of any wrongdoing. The banks immediately issued a statement saying this was not true.
Moynihan ignored the criticism and instead praised Trump for bringing the 2026 FIFA World Cup to the United States.
Trump’s speech was an unusual moment, giving a small group of corporate executives the opportunity to publicly question the U.S. president about issues affecting their businesses or specific investments, projects or interests.
Some of his harshest criticism has been directed at America’s traditional allies, Canada and the European Union. He chastised them for allowing a trade surplus with the United States while again threatening new tariffs.
“One of the things we’re going to demand is that we’re going to demand respect from other countries, from Canada. We have a huge deficit with Canada. We’re not going to do that anymore,” he said. .
He sharply criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, and the policies that have dominated Davos for years, from climate change to diversity. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who worked under Biden, visibly flinched while listening.
Some Davos attendees later praised his blunt style, while others mildly disagreed with his comments.
“It’s not particularly strange that you want to promote growth in your country,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Bas-Eide told Reuters after Trump’s speech. “Of course we believe we can live better in a world of free trade where goods and services are exchanged openly.”
Nuclear Weapons and Putin
President Trump pledged to crack down on illegal immigration and make the United States a hub for artificial intelligence (AI), cryptocurrency, and fossil fuels, as well as reduce inflation through tariffs, deregulation, and tax cuts.
“America has the largest reserves of oil and gas on the planet, and we will use them,” President Trump said. “Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, but it will also make America a manufacturing superpower.”
He said he was seeking talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine and wanted Russia and China to work to reduce their nuclear weapons.
Trump also repeated one familiar lie after another: during his first term, America’s air and water were the cleanest and the country had a “Green New Deal,” which he repealed.
After taking office, Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Agreement. He said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of the United States, although other countries may not adopt the new name. He also threatened to take back the Panama Canal from Panama.
He has moved quickly to crack down on immigration and expand domestic energy production and has threatened to impose high tariffs on the European Union, China, Mexico and Canada.
He also pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn his 2020 election loss, drawing the ire of lawmakers and police who feared for their lives.
Trump is moving to dismantle diversity programs within the U.S. government and is putting pressure on the private sector to do the same. That’s leaving some in Davos looking for new words to describe workplace practices they say are essential to their business.
