The 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos 2025 hosted a noteworthy address by Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, delivered via satellite link. The event convened more than 100 governments, international organizations, business leaders, experts, and civil society representatives to promote global cooperation through transparency, consistency, and accountability, aiming to drive meaningful change worldwide.
#Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #DonaldTrump #GlobalCooperation #PublicPrivatePartnership #Leadership #Transparency #Accountability #EconomicAgenda #Sustainability
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#Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #DonaldTrump #GlobalCooperation #PublicPrivatePartnership #Leadership #Transparency #Accountability #EconomicAgenda #Sustainability
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Trump Encourages Global Businesses to Manufacture in the US or Risk Tariffs at World Economic Forum :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/trump-urges-businesses-manufacture-in-us-or-face-tariffs-011-4051199.html?ref=DMDesc
Donald Trump At Davos: Bold 'Make In America' Pitch With Tax Cuts, Tariffs & Economic Reforms :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/donald-trump-davos-make-in-america-initiative-historic-tax-cuts-reduced-regulations-tariffs-global-4051185.html?ref=DMDesc
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello.
00:04What great honor and pleasure to welcome you back to the Davos community.
00:16Just four days into your new mandate, we highly appreciate your presence with us today.
00:26We wish you all the best as you take on your critical work ahead.
00:34The global challenges we face today are monumental.
00:40The importance of American leadership and your personal leadership in this regard is fundamental and paramount.
00:50We are here to hear your vision and policies related to revitalizing the economy and addressing the global challenges.
01:02As you might expect, Mr. President, your return to office and your forthcoming policies have been at the focus of our discussions this week.
01:15The discussions among 3,000 political and business leaders from over 130 countries who came together here in Davos.
01:28We look forward to hearing first from you and then to the follow-up discussion with business leaders, moderated by my colleague, Berge Brende.
01:41Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
01:56Well, thank you very much, Klaus, and hello to everyone in beautiful Davos.
02:02This has been a truly historic week in the United States.
02:05Three days ago, I took the oath of office and we began the golden age of America.
02:13The recent presidential election was won by millions of votes and all seven, every one of them, all seven swing states.
02:21It was a massive mandate from the American people like hasn't been seen in many years.
02:27And some of the political pundits, even some of my so-called enemies, said it was the most consequential election victory in 129 years.
02:36That's quite nice.
02:38What the world has witnessed in the past 72 hours is nothing less than a revolution of common sense.
02:44Our country will soon be stronger, wealthier, and more united than ever before.
02:49And the entire planet will be more peaceful and prosperous as a result of this incredible momentum and what we're doing and going to do.
02:59My administration is acting with unprecedented speed to fix the disasters we've inherited from a totally inept group of people and to solve every single crisis facing our country.
03:10This begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration.
03:18Over the past four years, our government racked up $8 trillion in wasteful deficit spending and inflicted nation-wrecking energy restrictions, crippling regulations and hidden taxes like never before.
03:33The result is the worst inflation crisis in modern history and sky-high interest rates for our citizens and even throughout the world.
03:42Food prices and the price of almost every other thing known to mankind went through the roof.
03:49President Biden totally lost control of what was going on in our country, but in particular with our high inflation economy and at our border.
03:58Because of these ruinous policies, total government spending this year is $1.5 trillion higher than was projected to occur when I left office just four years ago.
04:10Likewise, the cost of servicing the debt is more than 230% higher than was projected in 2020.
04:18The inflation rate we are inheriting remains 50% higher than the historic target.
04:23It was the highest inflation probably in the history of our country.
04:28That's why from the moment I took office, I've taken rapid action to reverse each and every one of these radical left policies that created this calamity, in particular with immigration, crime and inflation.
04:41On day one, I signed an executive order directing every member of my cabinet to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and reduce the cost of daily life.
04:53I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze, and I created the new Department of Government Efficiency.
05:05I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful Green New Deal. I call it the Green New Scam.
05:12I withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Accord and ended the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate.
05:21We're going to let people buy the car they want to buy.
05:23I declared a national energy emergency, and it's so important, national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and pave the way for rapid approvals of new energy infrastructure.
05:38The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth, and we're going to use it.
05:45Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, it will make the United States a manufacturing superpower and the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto.
05:59My administration has also begun the largest deregulation campaign in history, far exceeding even the record-setting efforts of my last term.
06:09In total, the Biden administration imposed $50,000 in additional regulatory costs on the average American household over the last four years.
06:20I have promised to eliminate 10 old regulations for every new regulation, which will soon put many thousands of dollars back in the pockets of American families.
06:31To further unleash our economy, our majorities in the House and Senate, which we also took along with the presidency, are going to pass the largest tax cut in American history, including massive tax cuts for workers and family and big tax cuts for domestic producers and manufacturers.
06:52And we're working with the Democrats on getting an extension of the original Trump tax cuts, as you probably know, by just reading any paper.
07:02My message to every business in the world is very simple.
07:06Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth.
07:13We're bringing them down very substantially, even from the original Trump tax cuts.
07:17But if you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff, differing amounts, but a tariff which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our Treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt.
07:36Under the Trump administration, there will be no better place on earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA.
07:45Already, Americans' economic – you can see this, I think, maybe even in your wonderful, wonderful room that you're all gathered together, so many of my friends.
07:57But Americans, the economic confidence is soaring like we haven't seen in many, many decades, maybe not at all.
08:04Upon my election, it was just announced that small business optimism skyrocketed by 41 points in a single month.
08:13That's the highest ever. There's never been anything like that.
08:16SoftBank has announced between a $100 and $200 billion investment in the U.S. economy because of the election result.
08:24And just two days ago, Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI announced a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure.
08:32Other companies likewise have announced billions and billions and billions, adding up to trillions of investment in America, in the United States.
08:44And it's also reported today in the papers that Saudi Arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in America.
08:52But I'll be asking the Crown Prince, who's a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion.
08:58I think they'll do that because we've been very good to them.
09:00And I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil.
09:06You've got to bring it down, which, frankly, I'm surprised they didn't do before the election.
09:11That didn't show a lot of love by them not doing it.
09:14I was a little surprised by that.
09:16If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.
09:20Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue.
09:24You've got to bring down the oil price. You've got to end that war.
09:27They should have done it long ago.
09:28They're very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what's taking place.
09:33Millions of lives are being lost.
09:35With oil prices going down, I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately.
09:40And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world.
09:43Interest rates should follow us.
09:45All over, the progress that you're seeing is happening because of our historic victory in a recent presidential election,
09:53one that has become quite well-known throughout the world.
09:56I think a lot of things are happening to a lot of countries.
09:59They say that there's light shining all over the world since the election.
10:03And even countries that we aren't particularly friendly with are happy
10:09because they understand what there is a future and how great the future will be.
10:14Under our leadership, America is back and open for business.
10:18And this week, I'm also taking swift action to stop the invasion at our southern border.
10:23They allowed people to come in at levels that nobody's ever seen before.
10:27It was ridiculous.
10:29I decided and declared to do, and very, very importantly,
10:35a national emergency on our border immediately halted all entry of illegal border crossers,
10:41of which there were many, and began promptly returning the illegal trespassers back to the place from which they came.
10:48That action, as you've probably seen, has already started very strongly.
10:51I've deployed active-duty U.S. military and National Guard troops to the border
10:58to assist in repelling the invasion.
11:01It was really an invasion.
11:03We will not allow our territory to be violated.
11:06After four long years, the United States is strong and sovereign and a beautiful nation once again.
11:14It's a strong, sovereign nation.
11:16In addition, I'm pleased to report that America is also a free nation once again.
11:21On day one, I signed an executive order to stop all government censorship.
11:26No longer will our government label the speech of our own citizens as misinformation or disinformation,
11:34which are the favorite words of censors and those who wish to stop the free exchange of ideas and, frankly, progress.
11:41We have saved free speech in America, and we've saved it strongly.
11:47With another historic executive order this week, I also ended the weaponization of law enforcement
11:53against the American people and, frankly, against politicians,
11:57and restored the fair, equal, and impartial rule of law.
12:01My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense.
12:08And these are policies that were absolute nonsense throughout the government and the private sector.
12:15With the recent, yet somewhat unexpected, great Supreme Court decision just made,
12:21America will once again become a merit-based country.
12:25You have to hear that word, merit-based country.
12:30And I've made it official, an official policy of the United States,
12:34that there are only two genders, male and female.
12:40And we will have no men participating in women's sports,
12:45and transgender operations, which became the rage, will occur very rarely.
12:51Finally, as we restore common sense in America,
12:54we're moving quickly to bring back strength and peace and stability abroad.
12:58I'm also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP,
13:05which is what it should have been years ago.
13:08It was only at 2%, and most nations didn't pay until I came along.
13:13I insisted that they pay, and they did,
13:15because the United States was really paying the difference at that time,
13:19and it was unfair to the United States.
13:21But many, many things have been unfair for many years to the United States.
13:25Before even taking office, my team negotiated a ceasefire agreement in the Middle East,
13:31which wouldn't have happened without us, as I think most of the people in the room know.
13:36Earlier this week, the hostages began to return to their families.
13:41They are returning, and it's a beautiful sight,
13:44and they'll be coming in more and more.
13:46They started coming back on Sunday.
13:48Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine
13:52are now hopefully underway.
13:55It's so important to get that done.
13:57That is an absolute killing field.
13:59Millions of soldiers are being killed.
14:02Nobody's seen anything like it since World War II.
14:05They're laying dead all over the flat fields.
14:08It's a flat field farmland, and there's millions of Russians and millions of Ukrainians.
14:14Nobody's seen anything like it since World War II.
14:18It's time to end it.
14:19And here in America, we have big events coming up.
14:22Next year, we have the 250th anniversary of America's founding.
14:27I'm so honored to be president during that.
14:29That's been a big event.
14:31They've been talking about it for 10 years.
14:33We also have the World Cup, and I understand Gianni is in the room.
14:39Infantino, he was very instrumental in helping us get it.
14:43He's there with you someplace, I think, and I want to thank him for that.
14:46And then we have the Olympics coming up, which I was instrumental in getting also in my first term.
14:54And who would have known that by skipping a term, I would get the Olympics?
14:57I was upset. I said, you know, I got the Olympics to come and I won't be president.
15:01But it turned out through a stroke of luck, or whatever you might call it,
15:05that I'm going to be president during the World Cup and the Olympics and the 250th anniversary.
15:11So that's going to be three big events.
15:13And we've accomplished more in less than four days.
15:17We have really been working four days than other administrations have accomplished in four years.
15:23And we're just getting started.
15:25It's really an amazing thing to see.
15:27And the spirit and the light over our country has been incredible.
15:30Under the last administration, our nation has suffered greatly.
15:34But we're going to bring it back and make it greater, bigger, stronger, better than ever before.
15:40I want to thank everybody for being with you.
15:43I would have been there myself, except the inauguration was two days ago.
15:47I thought it might be a little bit quick to make it the first stop.
15:50But we'll get there one day. We hope to get there.
15:53But I do appreciate. I heard the audience is fantastic.
15:57And many of my friends are in the audience.
15:59And I will be taking questions now from some very distinguished people.
16:03Thank you all very much.
16:04Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for that very powerful speech.
16:17And I think you could hear the applause all the way from Davos to the White House.
16:22But next year, it will be even better because then you can get the applause here in Davos.
16:27So we wish you welcome to our village next year.
16:30We hope to see you.
16:32Thank you very much.
16:34We also know, Mr. President, that you opened up for interaction here.
16:39We have a great panel with some of the most distinguished business people in the world.
16:45Let me start with someone that you know really well,
16:49that I think is almost a neighbor of you in Florida,
16:54Mr. Steve Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone Group.
17:02So, Steve, the floor is yours.
17:05Well, Mr. President, I'm sure the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia will be really glad you gave this speech today.
17:20You've had the busiest four days that anybody can imagine.
17:27And congratulations for that.
17:29And my question is about some of the things I've observed here at Davos.
17:38It's a terrific forum.
17:41I've met lots of people, as usual.
17:45I think I've been here 30 years.
17:47And a lot of the European business people have expressed enormous frustration
17:56with the regulatory regime in the EU.
18:02And they attribute slower growth rates here because of the numerous factors,
18:10but especially because of regulations.
18:14And you've taken a completely different approach in this area.
18:21And if you could explain the theory of what you're doing,
18:27how you're going to do it,
18:29and what you expect the outcome to be, I'd appreciate it.
18:36Well, thank you very much.
18:38And congratulations, Steve.
18:40You're a friend of mine, but on a great career.
18:42You have had an amazing career and continues.
18:44I just want to congratulate you.
18:46Very inspirational to a lot of people.
18:47I want to talk about the EU because you mentioned specifically
18:53that I've also had a lot of friends and leaders of countries.
18:57I've gotten to know them all my first term
18:59and a little bit during this period of four years.
19:02And know them well, like them a lot,
19:05but they're very frustrated because of the time everything seems to take
19:09to get approved, environmental impact statements for things
19:13that you shouldn't even have to do that,
19:14and many, many other ways that it takes.
19:18And I'm going to give you a quick little example.
19:20In the private life, my beautiful private life,
19:23before I had all these things happening,
19:25the world is a little different.
19:27I had a nice, simple life.
19:29You knew that.
19:31But when I had that simple life, I did projects.
19:34And I had a big project in Ireland.
19:36And it had to get approval on something
19:39that would have made it even better.
19:40And I got the approval from Ireland in a period of a week.
19:45And it was a very, very, very efficient, good approval.
19:49And they informed me, though,
19:51the problem is you're going to have to get it from the EU.
19:54And we think that'll take five to six years.
19:56And I said, you have to be kidding.
19:59And this was before politics.
20:02And I said, wait a minute, it's not that important.
20:05I don't want to go five or six years,
20:07but it would have been a big investment.
20:08It would have been nice.
20:10It would have been good for the project.
20:12And I sent the people to the EU
20:15to see if they could speed it up.
20:17And basically, it was a five or six year wait
20:19just to get a simple approval
20:21that Ireland gave me in a period of literally
20:23not much more than a week.
20:25And I realized right then,
20:27that was the first time I really was involved with the EU.
20:30But I realized right then that's a problem.
20:33And I didn't even bother applying to do it.
20:36And, or if I did, I pulled it very quickly.
20:40I have to be very accurate
20:42because I don't want to be criticized.
20:44He did apply, actually.
20:46No, I want to be very accurate.
20:48So I don't think I did.
20:50But if I did, I pulled it very quickly.
20:52It was just something you couldn't wait
20:54five years or six years to get an approval.
20:56So a lot of, in a very big business sense,
20:59a lot of people are claiming that's the problem.
21:01From the standpoint of America,
21:02the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly.
21:07They have a large tax that we know about,
21:12and a VAT tax, and it's a very substantial one.
21:16They don't take our,
21:18essentially don't take our farm products
21:20and they don't take our cars,
21:22yet they send cars to us by the millions.
21:25They put tariffs on things that we want to do.
21:29Like, for instance, I think they actually
21:30in terms of these are non-economic
21:34or non-monetary tariffs,
21:36and those are very bad,
21:38and they make it very difficult
21:40to bring products into Europe,
21:42and yet they expect to be selling,
21:44and they do sell their products in the United States.
21:46So we have, you know,
21:48hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits with the EU,
21:51and nobody's happy with it,
21:53and we're going to do something about it,
21:55but nobody's happy with it.
21:57So I think the EU has to speed up their process
21:58to speed up their process.
22:00Friends of mine that are in some of the nations
22:04within the EU, great people,
22:06they want to be able to compete better,
22:08and you can't compete
22:10when you can't go through the approval process fast.
22:13There's no reason why it can't go faster.
22:16So, you know, I'm trying to be constructive
22:19because I love Europe.
22:21I love the countries of Europe,
22:23but the process is a very cumbersome one,
22:25and they do treat the United States of America
22:29very, very unfairly with the VAT taxes
22:33and all of the other taxes they impose.
22:36One other, just to finish up,
22:38I got a call from the head of a major airline,
22:40one of the biggest airlines in the world,
22:42and he said, sir, could you help us?
22:45What? Landing in Europe is brutal.
22:48They charge us fees for everything,
22:50and it's so unfair.
22:52I said, how does it compare to China?
22:53He said, it's much worse.
22:56And the other thing, as you know,
22:59they took court cases with Apple,
23:02and they supposedly won a case
23:05that most people didn't think was much of a case.
23:08They won $15 or $16 billion from Apple.
23:11They won billions from Google.
23:13I think they're after Facebook
23:15for billions and billions.
23:17These are American companies.
23:19Whether you like them or not,
23:21they're American companies,
23:23and that's as far as I'm concerned,
23:26it's a form of taxation.
23:28So we have some very big complaints
23:30with the EU.
23:34Thank you very much, Mr. President.
23:38We'll now go to one of your friends in the EU,
23:42Patrick Poiana.
23:44He's the chairman and CEO of Total Energies.
23:48I guess you have a question ready, Patrick,
23:51for the president.
23:53Mr. President,
23:55as we understand,
23:57energy is at the top of your agenda,
23:59and it's an honor for me
24:01to represent the energy industry tonight
24:03in this panel.
24:05Total Energies is indeed
24:07the fourth largest oil and gas
24:09and electricity company in the world.
24:11I will not ask you a question
24:13about the oil price.
24:15It's quite clear what you expect from us.
24:17I will go to gas more.
24:18Gas is the largest exporter of energy
24:20from the US.
24:22We are a strong contributor
24:24to and we invest in
24:27a mammoth energy project
24:29in Texas, $20 billion.
24:31It's far from 200,
24:33but it's $20 billion.
24:35And we contribute with that
24:37to security of supply to Europe
24:40as we export this energy to Europe.
24:42Some experts fear
24:44that if there are too many projects,
24:45developed in the US,
24:47on LNG,
24:49this could have
24:51an inflationary impact
24:53on the US domestic gas price.
24:55And they recommend a pause
24:57on these projects.
24:59I would ask you the following question.
25:01What are your views
25:03about such a pause
25:05on investments on LNG in the US?
25:07What would happen
25:09if you would observe
25:11an increased domestic gas price
25:12because of these exports?
25:14And final question,
25:16which is important for Europe.
25:18Would you agree
25:20to guarantee security of supplies
25:22of US LNG to Europe?
25:26Well, on the last part of your question,
25:28yes, I would.
25:30I would make sure that you get it.
25:32If we make a deal, we make a deal.
25:34You'll get it,
25:35because a lot of people do have that problem.
25:37They make a deal
25:39and then it can't get supplied
25:40by problems and other problems.
25:42So we would absolutely do that.
25:44LNG is very interesting
25:46because when I took office
25:48for the first term,
25:50one of the first things I looked at
25:52was there were two very massive plants
25:54in Louisiana,
25:56a state that has been very good to me,
25:58wanted by many, many points.
26:00And I felt strongly indebted
26:02to it, actually.
26:04And they said there are two plants
26:06that have been under environmental
26:08consideration for more than 10 years.
26:10And as you say,
26:12you know how expensive those plants are,
26:14but they were costing like $12 billion
26:16and I think $14 or $15 billion.
26:18But they couldn't get their permits.
26:20They were in review for years,
26:23many, many years,
26:25like a decade or more.
26:27And I said, so ridiculous.
26:29I know so much about that
26:31because in the construction industry,
26:33I had to go through it, too,
26:35but I got good at it after a while.
26:37But I went, I saw the projects.
26:38You're talking about a total investment
26:40of $25 to $30 billion.
26:43And it looked like it was going to end.
26:45They couldn't get their permits.
26:47And I got them done in less than a week.
26:49It was done, completed.
26:51In fact, when they called them
26:53to announce that it was done,
26:55the countries, largely countries,
26:57Japan was involved
26:59and another country
27:01and some very big investors,
27:03they couldn't believe it.
27:05They actually couldn't believe it.
27:06I have one favorite.
27:08Don't pay any consultants
27:10because the only one that got it done was me.
27:12I got it done because it was the right thing
27:14to do for the U.S. and for the world.
27:16But the consultants had nothing to do with it.
27:18The consultants go in and they say,
27:20give us millions of dollars
27:22because Trump did it.
27:24Nobody called me about it.
27:26I just heard it was a problem for years.
27:28And I got it done
27:30because it was the right thing to do for the U.S.
27:32and the right thing to do for beyond.
27:34It had to do with energy, very important.
27:36The more that you do,
27:38the lower the price is going to go.
27:40And what I'd like to see is rapid approvals.
27:42We're going to give very rapid approvals
27:44in the United States,
27:46like with the AI plants,
27:48talking to many people who want to build them.
27:50That's going to be a very big thing.
27:52We're going to build electric generating facilities.
27:56They are going to build.
27:58I'm going to get them the approval.
28:00Under emergency declaration,
28:02I can get the approvals done myself
28:04without having to go through years of waiting.
28:06We need double the energy
28:08we currently have in the United States.
28:10Can you imagine?
28:12For AI to really be as big as we want to have it
28:15because it's a very competitive,
28:17it'll be very competitive with China and others.
28:19So I'm going to give emergency declarations
28:21so that they can start building them
28:23almost immediately.
28:25And I think it was largely my idea
28:28because nobody thought this was possible.
28:30It wasn't that they were not smart
28:32because they're the smartest.
28:34But I told them that what I want you to do
28:36is build your electric generating plant
28:38right next to your plant as a separate building,
28:40connect it.
28:42And they said, wow, you're kidding.
28:44And I said, no, no, I'm not kidding.
28:46You don't have to hook into the grid,
28:48which is old and could be taken out.
28:51If it's taken out,
28:53they wouldn't have any way to get any electricity.
28:56So we are going to allow them
29:00to go on a very rapid basis
29:02to build their plant,
29:04build the electric generating plant.
29:06Anything they want.
29:08And they may have coal as a backup.
29:10Good, clean coal.
29:12If there were a problem with a pipe coming in,
29:15as an example, you're going with gas,
29:17oil or gas, and a pipe gets blown up
29:20or for some reason doesn't work,
29:22there are some companies in the U.S.
29:24that have coal sitting right by the plant
29:29so that if there's an emergency,
29:31they can go to that short-term basis
29:33and use our very clean coal.
29:36That's something else that a lot of people
29:38didn't even know about.
29:40But nothing can destroy coal,
29:42not the weather, not a bomb, nothing.
29:44It might make it a little smaller,
29:46might make it a little different shape.
29:49But coal is very strong as a backup.
29:51It's a great backup to have that facility
29:53and it wouldn't cost much more money.
29:56And we have more coal than anybody.
29:58We also have more oil and gas than anybody.
30:00So we're going to make it
30:02so that the plants will have
30:04their own electric generating facilities
30:06attached right to their plant.
30:08They don't have to worry about a utility.
30:10They don't have to worry about anything.
30:12And we're going to get very rapid approvals.
30:16Thank you so much, Mr. President.
30:18We'll now go to another CEO
30:20that you know very well,
30:22Brian Monahan, the CEO and chair
30:25of Bank of America.
30:27Good afternoon, Mr. President,
30:29and congratulations
30:31and obviously a eventful week
30:33for you and your family.
30:34Five years ago you came here
30:36and we walked among 150 CEOs
30:38from all over the world
30:40and you engaged with them
30:42about your policies and your procedures.
30:44This year you're not here,
30:46and yet this week was eventful
30:48from the orders that you mentioned earlier,
30:50literally a wave of orders coming out
30:52on immigration, on trade,
30:54and many other matters.
30:56And so as a representative
30:58of the United States here,
31:00we got a lot of questions
31:02about what does all this mean
31:04for the U.S. economy?
31:06We've got a clear focus
31:08on growth, prosperity,
31:10stock market growth,
31:12a good bond market,
31:14and bringing down prices.
31:16So how do you think about
31:18the impact of all these orders
31:20and how fast they come out
31:22and how you're going to balance them
31:24with that scorecard
31:26of being successful
31:28in both continuing GDP growth,
31:30bringing down inflation,
31:32and also having a good
31:34bond market?
31:36Well, we're going to have
31:38a lot of companies moving in.
31:40You know, Brian, we're at 21 percent.
31:42It was at 40 percent
31:44and I got it down to 21 percent,
31:46the corporate tax.
31:48And it was actually,
31:50if you look at state and city,
31:52it was in many cases much higher than 40 percent.
31:54I got it down to 21 percent
31:56and now we're going to bring it down
31:58from 21 to 15 percent
32:00if, there's a big if,
32:02if you make your product in the U.S.
32:04as low as it gets
32:06and by far the lowest of a large country,
32:08a large, you know, rich,
32:10powerful country by far,
32:12not even a contest.
32:14So we're going to bring it down to 15 percent
32:16if you make your product in the U.S.A.
32:18So that's going to create
32:20a tremendous buzz.
32:22We're also probably going back
32:24to the one-year deduction
32:26where we deduct,
32:28you know, we did that originally
32:30and that was amazing,
32:32the impact that that had,
32:34and then it expires.
32:36But we're going to go back to that
32:38when we do the renewal
32:40of the Trump tax plan.
32:42We have to get Democrats to approve it,
32:44but, you know,
32:46if the Democrats didn't approve it,
32:48I don't know how they can survive
32:50with about a 45 percent tax increase
32:52because that's what it would be.
32:54And so I think they're going to be,
32:56we've been working along with them pretty well.
32:58I think it's very hard for a political group
33:00to say let's charge people 45 percent more.
33:02So I think we're in good shape,
33:04but I think we're going to have to
33:06get back to the normal businesses
33:08where you're going to bring it down
33:10to 15 percent,
33:12which is really something.
33:14And by the way,
33:16speaking of you,
33:18and you've done a fantastic job,
33:20but I hope you start opening
33:22your bank to conservatives
33:24because many conservatives
33:26complain that the banks
33:28are not allowing them to do business
33:30within the bank,
33:31and that included a place
33:32like Biden or what.
33:34But you and Jamie and everybody,
33:36I hope you're going to open
33:38your banks to conservatives
33:40because what you're doing is wrong.
33:42Mr. President,
33:44I'll say that your friend Gianni
33:46said hello,
33:48told me to tell you hello,
33:50and we look forward to sponsoring
33:52the World Cup when it comes,
33:54both this summer for the club
33:56and next year.
33:57So thank you for getting that
33:58for the United States.
33:59Thank you very much, Brian.
34:00Thank you, Ana Butin.
34:02She's the Executive Chairman
34:04of Banco Santander,
34:06one of the big European banks
34:08and also in the U.S.
34:10So, Ana.
34:12Mr. President,
34:14congratulations on a historic victory.
34:16I believe you don't know me
34:18as well as my fellow panelists,
34:20so a few words.
34:22Santander is one of the largest banks
34:24in the world by number of customers,
34:26170 million.
34:28That's more than my friend Brian
34:30and those...
34:35They fixed the regulation.
34:37That's coming, that's coming.
34:39That was cheeky.
34:41We're a big investor in the United States.
34:44We have many million customers,
34:4612,000 employees.
34:48We're one of the largest auto lenders,
34:50and we recently launched
34:52a fully digital bank called OpenBank.
34:54We strongly believe banks
34:56have a pivotal role in the economy
34:57and we can accelerate growth
34:59and help many more customers.
35:01That's what we're doing
35:03in the United States.
35:05So, as Brian pointed out,
35:07we very much welcome your focus
35:09on deregulation
35:11and reducing bureaucracy.
35:13So, my question is,
35:15what are your priorities in this regard
35:17and how fast is this going to happen?
35:19Thank you very much.
35:21I think it's going to...
35:23Thank you and congratulations.
35:25I know very much about your bank
35:27and you've done a fantastic job.
35:29Congratulations.
35:31We are going to move very quickly.
35:33We've moved very quickly.
35:35We've done things in the last three days
35:37that nobody thought were possible
35:39to do in years.
35:41And it's all taking...
35:43It's all taking effect.
35:45It's going to have a huge impact
35:47on the economy,
35:48a huge positive impact.
35:50Money was being wasted on crazy things.
35:52I mean, the Green New Deal
35:54was such a total disgrace.
35:55It was perpetrated.
35:57And it was conceived of
35:59by people that were average students,
36:01less than average students,
36:03I might add,
36:05and never even took a course
36:07in energy or the environment.
36:09It was just a game.
36:11Remember the world was going to end
36:13in 12 years?
36:15Remember that?
36:16Well, the 12 years has come and gone.
36:18It was going to end.
36:20It was going to all foam into earth.
36:22But, you know, the time has come.
36:23They really scared the Democrats large.
36:26I can't say the Republicans.
36:28The Republicans maybe could have
36:30fought harder to stop it,
36:32but it's been a tremendous waste of...
36:34a tremendous waste of money.
36:36You know, during my four years,
36:38we had the cleanest air,
36:40we had the cleanest water,
36:42and yet we had the most productive economy
36:44in the history of our country.
36:46We had the most productive economy
36:48until COVID came.
36:50We had the most productive
36:51and actually you could look worldwide.
36:53We were beating everybody
36:55from China to everybody else.
36:57And we think we really now,
36:59with what we have learned
37:01and all of the other things
37:03that have taken place,
37:05we think we can even far surpass that.
37:08Actually far, far surpass it.
37:10But we do...
37:11One thing we're going to be demanding
37:13is we're going to be demanding
37:15respect from other nations.
37:17Canada, we have a tremendous deficit
37:19with Canada.
37:20We're not going to have that anymore.
37:22We can't do it.
37:24I don't know if it's good for them.
37:26As you probably know,
37:28I say you can always become a state.
37:30And if you're a state,
37:32we won't have a deficit,
37:34we won't have to tariff you,
37:36et cetera, et cetera.
37:38But Canada has been very tough
37:40to deal with over the years,
37:42and it's not fair that we should have
37:44a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit.
37:46We don't need them to make our cars,
37:48and they make a lot of them.
37:50We have more than gas.
37:52We have more than anybody.
37:54So just as an example,
37:56with Mexico,
37:58we're dealing with Mexico,
38:00I think, very well.
38:02And we just want to be treated fairly
38:04with other nations
38:06because there's hardly a nation
38:08in the world,
38:10and I blame this on us,
38:12and I blame it on politicians
38:14that for some reason,
38:16probably mostly it's stupidity,
38:18but you could also say other reasons,
38:20but it's stupidity.
38:22They've allowed other nations
38:24to take advantage of the U.S.,
38:26and we can't allow that to happen anymore.
38:28You know, we have debt.
38:30It's a very small debt
38:32when you compare it to value,
38:34the value of the assets that we have,
38:36but we don't want to do that.
38:38We want to just have debt be obliterated,
38:40and we'll be able to do that fairly rapidly.
38:42And a lot of good things are going to happen.
38:44And honestly,
38:46good things are going to happen for the world,
38:48and good things are going to happen
38:50for allies and beyond allies.
38:52One thing very important,
38:54I really would like to be able
38:56to meet with President Putin soon
38:58and get that war ended,
39:00and that's not from the standpoint
39:02of economy or anything else.
39:04It's from the standpoint
39:06of millions of lives are being wasted.
39:08Beautiful young people are being shot
39:10in the battlefield.
39:12You know, the bullet,
39:14very flat land, as I said,
39:16and the bullet goes.
39:18There's no hiding,
39:20and you have to see,
39:22I've seen pictures of what's taken place.
39:24It's a carnage,
39:26and we really have to stop that war.
39:28That war is horrible.
39:30And I'm not talking economy.
39:32I'm not talking economics.
39:34I'm not talking about natural resource.
39:36I'm just talking about
39:38there's so many young people
39:40being killed in this war,
39:42and that's not including the people
39:44that have been killed
39:46as the cities are being, you know,
39:48knocked down building by building.
39:50I think we've made a lot of progress
39:52in the Middle East,
39:54and I think that's going to come along pretty well.
39:58Thank you, Mr. President.
40:00We know that the most consequential
40:02relationship in the world
40:04is between the U.S. and China.
40:06U.S., 28 percent of the global economy.
40:09China, close to 20.
40:11That's almost half of the global GDP.
40:13And we know that you called
40:15President Xi Jinping last Friday.
40:17We heard that you had a good discussion.
40:20How do you see the relationship
40:22between the U.S. and China
40:24in the next four years
40:26under your leadership?
40:28He called me,
40:30but I see it very good.
40:32I think that we're going to
40:34have a very good relationship.
40:37All we want is fairness.
40:39We just want a level playing field.
40:41We don't want to take advantage.
40:43We've been having massive deficits
40:45with China,
40:47but Biden allowed it to get out of hand.
40:49He's $1.1 trillion deficit.
40:52It's ridiculous.
40:54And it's just an unfair relationship,
40:56and we have to make it just fair.
40:58We don't have to make it phenomenal.
41:00We have to make it a fair relationship.
41:02Right now, it's not a fair relationship.
41:04The deficit is massive,
41:06as it is with other countries,
41:08a lot of Asian countries, actually.
41:10But we have deficits that are very big,
41:12and we can't keep doing that,
41:14so we're not going to keep doing that.
41:15I like President Xi very much.
41:18I've always liked him.
41:20We always had a very good relationship.
41:22It was very strained with COVID
41:24coming out of Wuhan.
41:26Obviously, that strained it.
41:28I'm sure it strained it with a lot of people,
41:30but that strained our relationship.
41:32But we always had a great relationship,
41:34I would say,
41:36and we look forward to doing very well
41:38with China and getting along with China.
41:40Hopefully, China can help us stop the war
41:42with, in particular, Russia, Ukraine.
41:43They have a great deal of power
41:45over that situation,
41:47and we'll work with them.
41:49I mentioned that during our phone conversation
41:51with President Xi.
41:53Hopefully, we can work together
41:55and get that stopped.
41:57We'd like to see denuclearization.
41:59In fact, with President Putin,
42:01prior to an election result,
42:03which was, frankly, ridiculous,
42:05we were talking about denuclearization
42:09of our two countries,
42:11and China would have come along.
42:13They have a much smaller, right now,
42:15nuclear armament than us,
42:17or field than us,
42:19but they're going to be catching it
42:21at some point over the next four or five years.
42:23I will tell you that President Putin
42:26really liked the idea
42:28of cutting way back on nuclear,
42:31and I think the rest of the world,
42:33we would have gotten them to follow,
42:35and China would have come along, too.
42:37China also liked it.
42:39Tremendous amounts of money
42:41are being spent on nuclear
42:43and the possibility is something
42:45that we don't even want to talk about today
42:47because you don't want to hear it.
42:49It's too depressing.
42:51We want to see if we can denuclearize,
42:53and I think that's very possible,
42:55and I can tell you
42:57that President Putin wanted to do it.
42:59He and I wanted to do it.
43:01We had a good conversation with China.
43:04They would have been involved,
43:06and that would have been
43:08an unbelievable thing for the planet.
43:10Mr. President,
43:11when you go back here in Davos next year,
43:13will there be, then,
43:15a peace agreement with Ukraine
43:17and Russia by then?
43:19Well, you're going to have to ask Russia.
43:21Ukraine is ready to make a deal.
43:24Just so you understand,
43:26this is a war that should have never started.
43:28If I were president,
43:30it would never have started.
43:32This is a war that should have
43:34never, ever been started,
43:36and it wasn't started during my...
43:38There was never even talk about it.
43:39There was never even an example
43:41of President Putin's eye,
43:43but I also knew that there was no way
43:45he was going in,
43:47and he wasn't going to go in.
43:49And then when I was out,
43:51bad things happened.
43:53Bad things were said.
43:55A lot of stupidity all around,
43:57and you end up with what you have.
43:59Now you have all these bombed-out cities.
44:01They look like demolition sites
44:03with many people killed.
44:05I think the thing that you'll see about Ukraine
44:07is that far more people have died
44:09and I've seen that,
44:11but far, far more people have died.
44:13When you look at a city
44:15that's become a demolition site
44:17where big buildings have been collapsed
44:19by missiles hitting them and everything else,
44:21and they say one person was slightly injured.
44:24No, no.
44:26Many people were killed.
44:28Those are big buildings.
44:30I was surprised at how...
44:32That was my business.
44:34These are buildings that go
44:36two and three blocks long.
44:37There were a lot of people in those buildings
44:39that announced that two people were injured.
44:41That's not true.
44:43So I think you're going to find
44:45that there were many more people killed
44:47in Ukraine in the Ukraine war
44:49than anybody has any idea.
44:51But if you look now,
44:53so many of the people being killed
44:55are soldiers just facing each other
44:57with guns, rifles, and drones,
44:59the new form of warfare, drones.
45:01And it's a very sad thing to see.
45:03And when you see pictures of the fields
45:05that I see,
45:07you'll never be the same.
45:10Thank you very much, Mr. President,
45:14on behalf of all the 3,000 participants
45:17here in Davos.
45:19We really, really underline
45:22that joining us the third day
45:25in your presidency,
45:27live taking questions here,
45:29is so appreciated.
45:31And we are already ready
45:33for receiving you next year in person.
45:35So thank you very much.
45:37And all the best from Davos.
45:41Thank you very much.