Come to America or pay taxes: in Davos, Donald Trump’s pressure on business bosses

Come produce in America or prepare to pay customs duties: this is the warning launched Thursday by Donald Trump to the big bosses gathered to listen to him in Davos.

“My message to all businesses around the world is simple: come make your products in America and you will benefit from some of the lowest taxes in the world,” declared the newly inaugurated 47th President of the United States. “But if you don’t produce them in the United States, which is your right, then, very simply, you will have to pay customs duties,” added Donald Trump, who spoke by videoconference from the White House at the meeting annual event of the World Economic Forum in the upscale resort of the Swiss Alps.

OPEC urged to “lower the cost of oil”

The American president took advantage of the Davos platform to tout his plans to lower taxes, deregulate and tackle illegal immigration. He also called on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to “lower the cost of oil,” saying that “if the price were lower, the war in Ukraine would be over immediately.”

He then answered questions asked by some big bosses in finance and energy. It was the CEO of the Blackstone investment fund, Stephen Schwarzman, who got the ball rolling. Followed by the CEO of oil giant TotalEnergies, Frenchman Patrick Pouyanné, that of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan, and finally Ana Botín, president of the Spanish banking group Banco Santander.

Among the personalities in the audience included the President of the ECB Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF Kristaline Georgieva and that of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former American special envoy for the climate John Kerry, or even Polish President Andrzej Duda. Donald Trump has already visited Davos in person twice during his first term, drawing crowds each time.

“Keep Calm”

Earlier in the day, one of Donald Trump’s close claimed allies, ultraliberal Argentine President Javier Milei, welcomed in Davos that Argentina was “embracing again the idea of ​​freedom.” “This is what I believe President Trump is going to do in this new America,” he added.

He praised like-minded leaders, Donald Trump, but also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele: “Slowly it formed an international alliance of all those nations who want to be free and who believe in the ideas of freedom. »

Javier Milei also defended his “dear friend” Elon Musk, who has become essential in recent months alongside Donald Trump and accused of having made a Nazi salute during a recent meeting in Washington. The world’s richest man has denied that was his intention. He was “unjustly vilified by wokism in the last hours for an innocent gesture”, assured Javier Milei, who also launched a full-scale attack against the “mental virus of woke ideology”, compared to a “cancer which must be extirpated.”

The elites gathered this week in Davos awaited with a mixture of enthusiasm and concern the intervention of the new leader of the world’s leading power. The champion of “America First” threatens his major trading partners with increases in customs duties and increased protectionism, far from the multilateralism and free trade that the World Economic Forum heralds. Threats of surcharges against Mexico, Canada, the European Union or China, withdrawal from the World Health Organization or the Paris climate agreement, stated desire to “take back” the Panama Canal… Donald Trump has given a taste of his intentions since his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the opening of the Davos Forum.

“Even if customs taxes are announced, please keep calm,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pleaded in Davos on Thursday. A calm that not everyone shares. “God save us,” said a spectator who had attended Donald Trump’s performance as he left the room.