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Attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos watched a live videoconference with US President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Trump’s session, which also featured a Q&A, points to how the annual gathering of global business executives and world leaders in Switzerland — which this year “started late… and felt light” — has had its attention trained on the new US administration’s early days.
The day’s agenda underscores how the rise of Trump-like figures worldwide sits in tension with Davos’ free-trade internationalism: Also speaking today is Argentina’s president, whose libertarianism is far from a perfect analog for Trump’s interventionist policies, but who has nevertheless become “a star among an ascendant global right,” The Wall Street Journal said.
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In his Davos address, Trump ran through many of the protectionist economic policies and executive actions he has announced in the days since his Monday inauguration, and further threatened imposing across-the-board tariffs on international firms that are not manufacturing in the US.
“My message to every business in the world is very simple, come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.”
The president touted a $500 billion private investment plan into artificial intelligence infrastructure spearheaded by OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank, doubling down on his commitment to cut red tape and expedite permit approvals for construction projects that will “soon put many thousands of dollars back into the pockets of American families.”
Trump also touched on energy security, saying he was in talks with Saudi Arabia to up its $600 billion US investment commitment to $1 trillion, and that he would ask the kingdom and OPEC to lower oil prices, adding that it would stall the Russian economy and bring them to the table for peace talks to end the Ukraine war.
The president committed to supplying Europe with energy resources, which many security experts believe is key to pushing the European Union away from Russian gas imports.
“If we make a deal, we make a deal: You’ll get it,” Trump said.