Trump comes out swinging at WEF, touts energy freedom, ending trade imbalances, stopping Ukraine War
Donald Trump pulled no punches in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday, proclaiming his “America First” agenda to the globalist group.
Appearing via video, Trump said…

Donald Trump pulled no punches in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday, proclaiming his “America First” agenda to the globalist group.
Appearing via video, Trump said he’d accomplished more in his first four days than his predecessor, Joe Biden, had in four years.
“My 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,” Trump said, citing wasteful deficit spending, energy restrictions and crippling regulations that sparked inflation and other woes.
Trump wasn’t shy about environmental issues and global warming fears, something the Davos group routinely cites and tries to build international consensus on.
“I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful ‘Green New Deal,’” Trump said. “I call it ‘the green new scam.’ I withdrew from the one-sided Paris climate accord and ended the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate. We’re going to let people buy the car they want to buy.”
Since taking office, he declared a national energy emergency “to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and pave the way for a rapid approval of new energy infrastructure.”
That energy is needed to “make the United States a manufacturing superpower and world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto (currency).”
He criticized overregulation in the European Union and took it to task for legal rulings against Apple and Google resulting in billions of dollars in fines and a similar case against Facebook. Interestingly, the CEOs of all three companies attended Trump’s inauguration Monday.
“These are American companies whether you like them or not,” Trump said. “They’re American companies and (Europe) shouldn’t be doing that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a form of taxation.”
Trump said he had begun “the largest deregulation campaign in history,” to roll back what he said were regulations imposed under Biden that cost the average American family $50,000 over the last four years.
Trump promised to cut the business tax rate from 21% to 15%, but only if you “make your product in America.”
He also spoke of his joyful expectation at being president during large celebrations such as America’s 250th birthday, the World Cup, and the Los Angeles Olympics, which Trump helped the city obtain.
“Who would have known that by skipping a term I would get the Olympics?” he asked. “I was upset…but it turned out through a stroke of luck or whatever you might call it that I’m going to be president during the World Cup and the Olympics and the 250th anniversary.”
Trump received a warm and cordial introduction from WEF founder Klaus Schwab, who offered no hint of the acrimony that existed between Trump and the group during his visits there in 2018 and 2020.
“Mr. President, your return to office and your forthcoming policies have been at the focus of our discussions this week among 3,000 political and business leaders from over 130 countries who came together here in Davos,” Schwab said. “We highly appreciate your presence with us today.”
After his speech, Trump took questions from a panel of banking and business leaders, including Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, who asked how Trump was balancing his actions to secure the border with the need to bring down inflation and grow the economy.
Trump responded with his plan to cut business taxes from 21% to 15% but only “if you make your product in the U.S.” Then he launched into Moynihan and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for allegedly keeping conservatives out of their banks.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump said. “I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what but you and Jamie and everybody, I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”
Trade imbalances came up as Trump derided Biden for allowing the U.S. to run up a $1.1 trillion trade deficit with China and a $200 billion plus deficit with Canada, something he has vowed to change.
“We have to make it a fair relationship” with China, Trump said, adding that he had a very good relationship with Chinese President Xi, although “it was very strained with COVID coming out of Wuhan. Obviously, that strained it.”
When asked if there would be a peace agreement in the Russia-Ukraine war by the time of the Davos gathering next January, Trump reiterated that the war “would never have started” if he were president, but that he “really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon and get that war ended.”