United States President Donald Trump appeared via livestream before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, delivering the first international speech of his second term.
But Thursday’s remarks took a combative approach to international diplomacy, as he once again threatened tariffs against foreign competitors and even allies like the European Union and Canada.
“My message to every business in the world is very simple: Make your product in America, and we’ll put you among the lowest taxes of any country on earth,” Trump said.
“But if you don’t make your product in America, if that’s your prerogative, then quite simply you have to pay a customs duty. A different amount, but a customs duty.”
Trump, a real estate mogul and former reality TV star, faced a largely friendly audience at the Davos Forum and is known for bringing together some of the world’s biggest business leaders.
Many of the people who raised questions after his speech were introduced when people knew Trump well.
The Republican’s speech came just three days after he was inaugurated in Washington, DC. His remarks reiterated many of the points he raised in his first speech, promising to once again bring the United States into a “golden age.”
He also repeated his usual list of grievances, including his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and members of previous administrations.
“They allowed other countries to take advantage of the United States,” Trump said.
Here are five important takeaways from Trump’s speech.
Trump uses carrot and stick approach
The Republican leader led the speech with a broad appeal to business leaders around the world, calling on them to move industry to the United States.
He touted plans to cut corporate taxes and lower interest rates to create a climate favorable to business growth.
“My administration has also launched the largest deregulatory campaign in history, far surpassing even the record-breaking efforts of my last term,” Trump said.
He offered a trickle-down vision of our prosperity as one that would benefit the entire world.
“They say that since the election a light has been shining all over the world, and even in countries where we are not particularly friendly, we are realizing that there is a future and how great the future is. I’m happy,” he said.
“Under our leadership, America is back and open for business.”
But he warned that there will be tariffs imposed on companies that refuse to invest in this vision of our success.
Already, in recent months, Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 60% on Chinese goods and 25% on Mexican and Canadian items.
Trump criticizes the European Union
But the president reserved special ire for the EU. It accused it of imposing onerous regulations and attacking American business.
He cited a recent antitrust case against a US-based tech titan as an example.
“They went to court with Apple, and they probably won a case that most people didn’t think was much of a case,” Trump said. “They got billions from Google. I think they’re billions and billions after Facebook.”
He implied that the incident was motivated by the companies’ countries of origin.
“These are American companies,” Trump said. “They shouldn’t do that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a form of taxation.”
The US is the EU’s top trading partner, and as of 2022, the US had a $131 billion trade deficit with the 27-nation bloc. According to US government statistics, the US exported goods worth $59.2 billion to the EU and imported $723 billion.
Most economists believe that deficits are not necessarily a sign of trouble. Trade imbalances can be the result of many factors, including differences in currency values and consumer spending habits.
But Trump has focused on trade deficits as a sign of economic weakness, and he has again pledged to eliminate them from 2017 to 2021, as he vowed in his first term.
He also compared Europe’s value-added tax (also known as the VAT tax) to a “non-economic or non-pecuniary tariff.”
“From an American perspective, the EU is treating us very unfairly. Very badly,” Trump said. “They essentially don’t take our produce, they don’t have our cars. But they send us cars by the millions. They do what we want to do. We will impose tariffs on it.”
Canada: Provincial or face tariffs will apply
Weeks before Davos, Trump made it clear that he wanted to expand the United States’ borders in the coming years, and that the Panama Canal and Greenland had been placed under his control.
At a press conference this month, Trump refused to even rule out “military or economic coercion” in pursuing these two territories.
But at Davos on Thursday, Trump spoke briefly about another country he has in his crosshairs: Canada.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants Canada to become the “51st nation,” provoking anger from America’s northern neighbor.
“We’re going to demand respect from other countries,” Trump said in Davos, quickly pivoting to Canada. “We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We don’t have that anymore. We can’t do it.”
According to the U.S. government, Canada will be the country’s largest buyer of goods in 2022, accounting for $356.5 billion in purchases. In 2023, an estimated $2.7 billion worth of goods and services will cross the U.S.-Canada border every day.
But Trump has promised to slap higher tariffs on Canada as a way to force the country to address drug trafficking and irregular migration across its borders.
But at Davos, Trump teased another way to avoid tariffs.
“As you probably know, I say: ‘You can always be a nation. And if you are a nation, we won’t have a deficit. We’ll tax you. There’s no need,” Trump said.
However, economists warn that the tariffs could backfire as other countries may respond to the US with their own tariffs.
Trump reduces Ukraine’s ‘killing fields’
Despite his aggressive stance on tariffs and trade deficits, Trump once again touted his self-described role as peace director, pointing to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
War broke out in 2022, and in Davos, Trump again used the opportunity to blame his predecessor, Biden, for waging the invasion.
But he also pointed his finger at another target: oil prices.
“If prices come down, the Russia-Ukrain war will end quickly,” Trump said. “Right now, prices are high enough that that war will continue. You need to lower oil prices. You’re going to end that war.”
The war has raised energy prices, but it’s unclear how Trump envisions oil markets ending the war in Ukraine. War sanctions are already putting a huge strain on Russia’s economy.
Trump himself has threatened further sanctions and “high-level” tariffs against Russia if it does not end the war with Ukraine quickly.
At Davos, he lamented the hundreds of thousands of lives lost on the battlefield there.
“It’s an absolute killing field. Millions of soldiers are being killed,” Trump said. “Nobody’s seen anything like that since World War II. They’re dead all over the flat fields.”
However, he added that efforts to secure a peaceful settlement were “hopefully now underway.” He also teased a possible deal with Russia to dismantle all or part of its nuclear arsenal.
“We want to see denuclearization,” Trump said, citing conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his first term in office.
“Putin really liked the idea of cutting the way back to nuclear. And I think the rest of the world, we started to follow them, and China together. He must have come.”
Trump mocks climate change policy
As part of his push for deregulation, Trump once again hammered home environmental policies designed to reduce carbon emissions and alleviate the climate crisis.
The United States is estimated to be the second largest source of annual carbon emissions in the world after China. These emissions, primarily from fossil fuels, enter the atmosphere as greenhouse gases that trap heat and increase temperature.
Still, on Monday, Trump once again withdrew from the Paris Agreement, an international climate agreement designed to reduce emissions.
He had previously pulled the US out of the contract in 2019 during his first term, but Biden re-entered it in 2021.
At Davos, Trump again described the Paris climate agreement as “one-sided.” And he reiterated his pledge to “unlock” fossil fuel reserves.
“The United States has the most oil and gas of any country on earth, and we’re going to use it,” Trump said.
Trump also mocked his political opponents for advancing his “Green New Deal.” This is the scale of policy proposals in the United States designed to reduce carbon emissions.
“It was thought of by people who are average students and are less-than-average students,” Trump said.
He accused architects of sensationalism and peddling carbon-cutting policies.
“Remember that the world ends in 12 years? Remember that? Well, 12 years is coming. It was going to end. It all went to Earth in bubbles.”
Still, climate change experts point to 2024 as the hottest year on record. If current trends continue, the weather could become stronger and lead to more deadly natural disasters.
Already, the United States is grappling with devastating wildfires in Southern California that have killed at least 27 people and are likely to be exacerbated by unseasonably dry weather.