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Donald Trump called on OPEC to lower global oil prices, and insisted that central banks around the world cut interest rates “immediately” afterwards.
In a speech to executives in Davos on Thursday, the US president urged Saudi Arabia and other producers to reduce the cost of crude oil, expressing dismay that they had not already done so.
“I will ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil. You have to bring it down. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't do it before the election,” he said.
“Right now, the price is high enough to sustain that war,” he said, referring to Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine and suggesting that high oil prices helped sustain Putin’s war machine.
“You have to lower oil prices, that will end that war,” he added. “You can end that war.”
Trump said that as crude oil prices fall, he “will demand that interest rates be lowered immediately. Likewise, they should be lowering around the world. Interest rates should follow us.”
The US President's video appearance at the World Economic Forum was his first speech to a global audience since his inauguration earlier this week.
He used the rhetoric to insist that companies around the world make their products in the United States — or face sweeping tariffs on imported goods entering the American market.
Trump has touted his economic agenda of radical deregulation and his plan to implement “the largest tax cut in American history,” calling it “nothing less than a common-sense revolution.”
Trump's statements regarding oil prices came after he spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Wednesday. During the conversation, bin Salman pledged to invest up to $600 billion in the United States over the next four years.
But on Thursday, Trump said he would ask “the Crown Prince, who is a wonderful man, to round it up to about a trillion dollars.”
The price of crude oil fell by 1 percent after Trump's comments.
Trump also touted the advantages of “good, clean coal” to power the data centers needed for artificial intelligence. “We need to double the capacity we currently have in the United States, in order for AI to be as large as we want it to be,” he said, adding that he would use emergency decrees to speed up construction of new power plants.
“Nothing can destroy coal — not weather, not a bomb, nothing,” Trump said. The share price of Peabody, the largest American coal company, rose 4 percent due to these statements.
Trump also spoke positively about his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for strained relations between Washington and Beijing, and expressed his hope that China could help end the war in Ukraine.
“All we want is justice,” Trump said, adding that he seeks a level playing field with China. Trump added that as things were, the relationship was “unfair.”
Trump also criticized the European Union, calling fines imposed by Brussels on US technology companies for violating competition rules “a form of taxation.”
“They're American companies and they shouldn't be doing this as far as I'm concerned,” Trump said. “It is a form of taxation. We have some very big complaints with the European Union.”
On Tuesday, Financial Times I mentioned Trump threatened to double tax rates on foreign citizens and corporations in the United States in response to “discriminatory” duties imposed on American multinational corporations.
