Trump tells Davos elite to invest in US or face tariffs

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used an address Thursday to the World Economic Forum to promise global elites lower taxes if they bring manufacturing to the U.S. and threatened to impose tariffs if they don’t.

Speaking by video from the White House to the annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, on his third full day in office, Trump ran through his flurry of executive actions since his swearing-in and claimed that he had a “massive mandate” from the American people to bring change. He laid out a carrot-and-stick approach for private investment in the U.S.

“Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes as any nation on earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff — differing amounts — but a tariff, which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt under the Trump administration.”

Trump, who spoke Wednesday to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, also said Thursday that the kingdom wants to invest $600 billion in the U.S. but that he would ask Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to increase it to $1 trillion. The remark drew some laughter from the crowd in the hall in Davos.

Introducing Trump, Davos founder Klaus Schwab told the new president that his return and his agenda have “been at the focus of our discussions this week.” He invited Trump to speak at the summit in person next year.

Trump, who promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war before taking office, said it remained a top priority, but he offered few clues for how he would do so.

“One thing very important: I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon and get that war ended,” Trump told the Davos audience. “We really have to stop that war. That war is horrible”

Earlier in his address to the forum, Trump laid blame on the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries for keeping the price of oil too high for much of the nearly three-year war. Oil sales are the economic engine driving Moscow’s economy.

“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” Trump said. He added about OPEC+, “They are very responsible to a certain extent for what’s taking place.”

Oil prices have more recently slumped due to weaker-than-expected demand from China as well as increased production from countries such as Brazil and Argentina that aren’t in OPEC+.

In the largest hall in the Davos Congress Center — seating capacity 850 — Trump’s appearance drew nearly standing-room-only turnout. The crowd included diplomats, human rights advocates, academics and business leaders. His return to the White House and his barrage of executive orders have been the talk of the town this week in the snowy Swiss town.

At times, Trump drew a few groans, like when he derided “inept” members of the outgoing Biden administration. The loudest laughter came when WEF President Borge Brende said Trump had called Chinese President Xi Jinping over the weekend, and the U.S. leader quickly corrected him: “He called me.”

The reaction from the audience was mixed. Some attendees enjoyed the attention from Trump.

“I was impressed (by) the force of his convictions and by what he said. I don’t share his opinion on many topics, but I thought he was well prepared and knew who he was talking to,” said Benedict Fontanet, a Swiss lawyer.

Others cringed at the “America First” ambitions of Trump yet again.

“It’s absolute determination to ‘make America great again’ at the expense of the rest of the world,” said Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International. “It’s favoring American workers at the expense of workers everywhere ... There’s nothing, nothing about the rest of the world.”

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Keaten reported from Davos, Switzerland. Associated Press writers David Keyton in Davos and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.