One day after speaking to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Donald Trump pushed the kingdom to increase its U.S. investment, saying he would ask the Saudis to “round out” their promised $600 billion “to around $1 trillion.”
“I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them,” Trump said during virtual remarks to business and foreign leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During Wednesday’s call, Trump’s first with a foreign leader since his inauguration Monday, the kingdom’s de facto head told Trump he would invest at least $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, according to a readout provided by the Saudi government.
Trump, addressing the crowd at Davos on Thursday, also said he would push Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to bring down the price of oil.
“You got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election,” he said. “That didn’t show a lot of love by them not doing it. I was a little surprised by that.”
Crude oil prices fell after Trump’s remarks, while U.S. stocks jumped.
In a rollicking address, Trump ticked through the sweep of actions he has taken to yank back much of Joe Biden’s presidency and launch his own agenda, covering everything from Middle East peace to a new official policy charging that “there are only two genders, male and female.”
“We’ve accomplished more in four days — we have really been working four days — than other administrations have accomplished in four years,” Trump said. “And we’re just getting started.”
We’re looking to hear from federal government workers. If you’re willing to talk with us, please email us at [email protected] or contact us through one of these methods.
And he did not shy away from pressing his interlocutors directly.
After a question from Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, Trump charged that financial institutions, including Bank of America, had refused banking services to conservatives. He also warned the business and foreign leaders before him that “if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.”
Bank of America pushed back on Trump’s claims in a statement, saying, “We welcome conservatives and have no political litmus test.”
“We have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop,” JPMorgan Chase said.
Trump has so far littered his return to Washington with promises to drive a multi-billion dollar surge of investments into the U.S. economy, shore up American industry, and level new tariffs in trade negotiations.
The president has threatened steep tariffs on foreign nations, including Canada and Mexico, which he said could start as early as Feb. 1, and also threatened the European Union. And he has moved to quickly expand domestic energy production, kick off an immigration crackdown, and pull the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement and World Health Organization.
The virtual address and subsequent question session marked Trump’s first major speech to foreign and business leaders since assuming office. Trump’s allies have long derided the global elites at Davos as working to undermine Trump’s agenda, but the president was given a warm welcome from the organizers and executives assembled on stage, despite a rollout of policies in his first days in office that captured his nationalist tendencies.
Later, Trump explained how he sees the U.S.-China relationship and said he wants Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him end the war in Ukraine, where he said too many millions of soldiers have died on a “killing field.” He said Kyiv “is ready to make a deal” and suggested President Vladimir Putin remains a holdout. “You are going to have to ask Russia,” Trump said when asked if a peace agreement could come together by this time next year.
Trump in September said that if re-elected, he would end the nearly three-year-long war in Ukraine on Day 1 of his presidency, or possibly before. But a peace deal seemed far off this week, and Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose sanctions and tariffs on Russia and its allies if the war doesn’t end soon.
“We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better,” he said. “It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.”
Asked at Davos about a call he held with Xi last week, Trump clarified that it wasn’t him reaching out to the Chinese leader. Xi “called me,” Trump said, nodding to how he views a key relationship that has been complicated by trade talks and the Covid pandemic, which originated in China.
The post Trump says he’ll ask Saudi Arabia to invest $1 trillion in the U.S. during wide-ranging Davos address appeared first on NBC News.
