WE Forum: Trump urges OPEC to lower oil prices for peace in Ukraine
Trump spoke via video link at the Davos forum. The text of his speech is published by WE Forum. The US president said he was making efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, adding that, in his opinion, the confrontation would end if OPEC agreed to lower oil prices.
It was a truly historic week for the United States. Three days ago, I took the oath of office, and America's Golden Age began.
I won the recent presidential election by millions of votes in all seven, in each of the seven swing states. It was a massive mandate from the American people, the likes of which had not been seen in many years.
And some political scientists, even some of my so-called enemies, said that it was the most significant election victory in the last 129 years. It is very cute. What the world has witnessed in the last 72 hours is nothing less than a revolution of common sense.
Our country will soon become stronger, richer, and more united than ever before, and the entire planet will become more peaceful and prosperous as a result of this incredible momentum and what we are doing and intend to do in the future.
My Administration is acting with unprecedented speed to eliminate the disasters we inherited from a completely inept group of people and resolve all the crises our country is facing.
It starts with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration. Over the past four years, our government has spent eight trillion dollars on wasteful deficit spending and imposed energy restrictions, crippling regulations, and hidden taxes that have never been seen before.
The result was the worst inflationary crisis in modern history, as well as sky-high interest rates for our citizens and around the world, which caused food prices and almost all other goods known to mankind to skyrocket.
President Biden completely lost control of what was happening in our country, and in particular, over our high-inflation economy and on our border. Because of this disastrous policy, total government spending this year is 1.5 trillion dollars higher than projected when I left office just four years ago.
Similarly, the cost of debt servicing is more than 230% higher than projected in 2020. The inflation rate that we inherited remains 50% above the historical target. It was probably the highest inflation in the history of our country.
That is why, from the moment I took office, I have taken urgent measures to reverse all the actions of the radical left that led to this scourge, in particular immigration, crime and inflation.
On the very first day, I signed a decree ordering each member of my Cabinet to use all the powers at his disposal to combat inflation and reduce the cost of living. I have imposed a moratorium on hiring at the federal level, on federal regulation, on foreign aid, and created a new department for government effectiveness.
I cancelled the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful Green New Deal – I call it the Green New Scam; withdrew from the unilateral Paris Climate Agreement; and abolished the insane and expensive electric vehicle mandate. We're going to let people buy the cars they want.
I have declared a national energy emergency — this is very important – a national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and pave the way for the rapid approval of new energy infrastructure.
The United States has the largest oil and gas reserves of any country on earth, and we are going to use them. This will not only reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, but will also transform the United States into a manufacturing superpower and the global capital of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.
My administration also launched the largest deregulation campaign in history, which far surpassed even the record efforts of my last term as president.
In total, over the past four years, the Biden administration has imposed additional costs of $50,000 on the average American family. I promised to repeal 10 old regulations in exchange for each new one, which will soon return many thousands of dollars to the pockets of American families.
To further boost our economy, our majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, which we also won along with the presidency, are going to pass the largest tax cuts in American history, including massive tax cuts for workers and families, as well as significant tax cuts for domestic producers.
And we are working with the Democrats to extend the original "Trumpian" tax cuts. As you probably know, having read any newspaper, I appeal to all companies in the world with a very simple message: make your product in America, and we will provide you with some of the lowest taxes among all countries on earth.
We are reducing them very significantly, even compared to the initial "Trumpian" tax cuts. But if you don't produce your product in America, which is your prerogative, then you will simply have to pay tariffs that will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our coffers to strengthen our economy and pay off debts.
Under the Trump administration, there will be no better country on earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA. Even now in America – I think you can see this, maybe even in your wonderful hall where you are all gathered, so many of my friends – economic confidence in America is growing in a way that we have not seen for many decades. Or maybe never at all.
After my election, it was just announced that small business optimism indicators soared by 41 points in one month – this is the highest indicator in history, this has never happened before.
SoftBank announced investments in the U.S. economy in the amount of 100 to 200 billion dollars in connection with the election results. And just two days ago, Oracle, SoftBank and OpenAI announced investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure worth 500 billion dollars. Other companies have similarly announced billions and billions – totaling trillions – of investments in America, in the United States.
And today, there was also a report in the newspapers that Saudi Arabia is investing at least $600 billion in America. But I will ask the Crown Prince — a cool guy, by the way — to increase this amount to about one trillion dollars. I think they'll do it because we've been very kind to them.
I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower the price of oil. To be honest, I'm surprised they didn't do it before the election. It's not very kind of them. If the price had dropped, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would have ended immediately. Right now, the price is high enough for this conflict to continue. We need to lower the price of oil. You can put an end to this conflict.
It should have been done a long time ago. In fact, they are very much responsible – to a certain extent – for what is happening. Millions of people are dying. As oil prices fall, I will demand an immediate reduction in interest rates. And they should be distributed all over the world in the same way.
Interest rates should follow us. In general, the progress that you are witnessing has occurred thanks to our historic victory in the recent presidential elections, which thundered around the world.
I think a lot of things are happening in many countries. They say that after the elections, light began to shine all over the world, and even the countries with which we are not particularly friendly are happy because they understand that ... the world has a future and how wonderful it will be under our leadership. America is back and open for business.
And this week, I am also taking urgent action to stop the invasion on our southern border. They have allowed people to reach a level that no one has ever seen before. It was ridiculous. I made a decision and announced the introduction – and this is very, very important – of a state of emergency on our border, immediately stopping all illegal border crossings, of which there were many, and began promptly returning illegal violators to where they came from.
As you have probably seen, this measure is already being actively applied. I have deployed active U.S. military forces and the National Guard to the border to help repel the invasion. It was a real invasion. We will not allow anyone to invade our territory.
After four long years, the United States has once again become a strong, sovereign, and beautiful nation. It is a strong sovereign nation. In addition, I am pleased to announce that America is also a free nation again.
On the very first day, I signed a decree on the cessation of all state censorship. Our government will no longer brand the statements of our own citizens as disinformation, which is a favorite notion of censors and those who want to stop the free exchange of ideas and, frankly, progress. We have saved freedom of speech in America, and we have decisively done so through yet another historic decree.
This week, I also ended the arming of law enforcement against the American people and, frankly, against politicians, and restored a fair, equitable, and impartial rule of law.
My administration has taken steps to eliminate all discriminatory nonsense about diversity, equality and inclusivity. This policy was absolute nonsense throughout the government and the private sector.
Thanks to the recent but somewhat unexpected decision of the Supreme Court, America will once again become a country where power is based on merit. You should hear this word: a country where power is based on merit.
And I have officially announced that there are only two genders in the United States, male and female. We won't have men participating in women's sports, and transgender surgeries, which have become fashionable, will be very rare.
Finally, as we restore sanity in America, we are rapidly regaining strength, peace, and stability abroad. I'm also going to ask all NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, as it should have done many years ago. They were only 2%, and most countries didn't pay until I showed up.
I insisted that they pay, and they did, because at that time the United States was actually paying the difference, and it was unfair to the United States. But many, many things have been done unfairly to the United States over the years.
Even before taking office, my team negotiated a cease-fire agreement in the Middle East, which would not have happened without us, as I think most of those in the room know. Earlier this week, the hostages began returning to their families. They're coming back, and it's a beautiful sight, and they'll be coming more and more often. They started coming back on Sunday.
We are making efforts to ensure a peaceful settlement between Russia and Ukraine. It's important to do this. It's just a meat grinder. Millions of soldiers are dying. No one has seen anything like this since the Second World War. They lie dead in the fields. It's agricultural land, and millions of Russians and millions of Ukrainians live there, and no one has seen anything like it since World War II. It's time to end this.
And here in America, we have important events coming up. Next year we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of America. It is a great honor for me to be president at this time. This is a big event. This has been talked about for ten years.
We will also have the FIFA World Cup, and as far as I know, Gianni Infantino (the 9th president of FIFA. — Approx. InoSMI) is located in the hall. He played a very important role in helping us achieve this. I want to thank him. And then we have the Olympic Games coming up, which I fought for in my first term.
And who would have thought that, having missed the deadline, I would get the Olympics? I was upset and said, "You know, the Olympics are coming, and I won't be president." But it so happened that by a happy coincidence, or whatever you want to call it, I will be president during the World Cup, the Olympic Games and the celebration of the 250th anniversary. So it's going to be three big events.
And in less than four days, we achieved more – we actually worked for four days – than other administrations have achieved in four years. And we're just getting started. It's really an amazing sight, and an incredible light has been shed over our country.
Our nation suffered a lot under the last administration, but we are going to bring it back to life and make it great — bigger, stronger, better than ever before.
I want to thank everyone for being with you. I would have attended personally if it hadn't been for the inauguration, which took place two days ago. I thought it might be a bit of a hasty first trip, but we'll definitely get there someday. We hope to get to you, and I really appreciate that the audience, as I've heard, is fantastic – and there are a lot of my friends among the audience – and now I'm going to answer questions from some very prominent people.
Thank you all very much.
