During a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Donald Trump joined in on discussions with several prominent executive leaders, including Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO and Co-Founder of BlackRock; Ana Botin, Executive Chair of Banco Santander; Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies; and Brian Moynihan, Chair of the Board and CEO of Bank of America.
In a Q&A session, the CEOs probed Trump on various topics, including international regulatory frameworks and global energy production.
Trump revealed his administration plans to lower the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% if a company makes its products in the U.S.A. “Under the Trump administration, there will be no better place on Earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA.”
Trump told Moynihan, “My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth. But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff.”
Trump said his administration will have a “huge impact on the economy” by reforming regulations. “The economic confidence is soaring like we haven’t seen in many, many decades.”
In response to a question from Schwarzman on EU regulations, Trump said the EU needs to “speed up their process, to be able to compete better, and you can’t compete when you can’t get through the approval process fast.”
Answering Pouyanné about the liquid natural gas trade, Trump said “We need double the energy we currently have in the United States for AI to be as big as we want to have it, because it’s very competitive.”
Addressing tariffs, Trump said the U.S. would “be demanding respect from other nations” and maintain a “very good relationship” with China, stating, “All we want is fairness.”
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
