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America will emerge from this moment of global trade turmoil as a stronger nation, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said Thursday.
“We’ve been through periods where people are unhappy before,” Kirby told Liz Hoffman at the Semafor World Economy Summit in Washington, DC, describing US President Donald Trump’s recent tariff increases as opening moves in a game of chess.
“The president has a genuine desire to make things better for middle-class Americans,” Kirby argued, stressing that tariffs are aimed at middle-class job creation, “whether you think it’s the right tactic or not.”
Success, however, will take time, Kirby said, and the US needs to be patient. “We should all take a breath,” he said.
“I think we’re going to get to that new normal. But we’re in the sausage making process now.”
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Kirby’s support for Trump’s trade war comes after United in January announced a $1 million donation to the president’s inaugural fund.
Kirby on Thursday said consumers do not appear to have cut back on travel plans for the summer, indicating they haven’t been directly impacted by the trade turmoil.
“They don’t actually feel anything in their current paycheck,” Kirby said, conceding that some people may be cutting back on discretionary spending, like a weekend getaway to the Bahamas, out of precaution.
Kirby also said he remained confident that foreigners would continue to travel to the US.
Still, recent data suggests that international visitors to the US are dropping, with flight arrivals from Western Europe down 17% in March compared to last year, Euronews reported. Global visitors were down some 3.3% for the month compared to 2024.
The Semafor View
The energy transition is changing, not ending. Renewable and fossil-fuel production are at record highs. Clean energy is cheaper than oil drilling, and Big Tech’s appetite for power is growing exponentially. Investments into new fuel sources and green tech are unlikely to wind down any time soon, while countries are increasingly concerned with energy independence.