DAVOS: US President Donald Trump issued a blunt warning to global elites in a video message to the World Economic Forum on Thursday: Make your product in the United States or pay tariffs.

Beamed on a giant screen in the Swiss Alpine village of Davos, Trump received a loud round of applause from political and business A-listers who had eagerly awaited his appearance all week.

Speaking from the White House, Trump touted his plans to cut taxes, deregulate industries and crack down on illegal immigration. But he also had a tough message.

“Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of 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.”

US president believes Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately if Saudi Arabia and Opec bring down crude oil prices

In his wide-ranging speech, Trump made a link between the war in Ukraine and oil prices. Trump said he would ask Saudi Arabia and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to bring down crude prices. “If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” he said.

The US leader then fielded question from the top executives of Bank of America, Blackstone investment firm, Spanish group Banco Santander andFrench oil and gas giant TotalEnergies.

Trump is always a top draw in Davos, making waves at two previous in-person appearances during his first term in 2018 and 2020. But showing up this year was tougher as the forum happened to start on the day of his inauguration in Washington on Monday.

Scores stood in line to hear him speak. Some in the audience included European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

Trump fans

One of the Republican president’s biggest cheerleaders on the world stage, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei, took the stage hours before Trump, delivering a fiery speech against “the mental virus of woke ideology”.

Milei said Argentina was “re-embracing the idea of freedom” and “that is what I trust President Trump will do in this new America”. He praised like-minded leaders such as Trump, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.

“Slowly an international alliance has been formed of all those nations that want to be free and that believe in the ideas of freedom,” he said. He also defended his “dear friend” Elon Musk.

The US billionaire and Trump ally caused a stir this week by making hand gestures at an inauguration event for the US president that drew comparisons to the Nazi salute.

Milei said Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, has been “unfairly vilified by wokeism in recent hours for an innocent gesture that only means... his gratitude to the people”.

‘Let’s not hyperventilate’

Trump already gave Davos a taste of what is to come since his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the WEF’s first day.

He has threatened tariffs on China, the European Union, Mexico and Canada, pulled the United States from the Paris climate pact and renewed his claim the Panama Canal, just to name a few.

His plans to cut taxes, reduce the size of the US federal government and deregulate industries likely found a sympathetic ear amongst many businesses, though economists warn the policies could rekindle inflation.

US trade partners and rivals already had a chance to react in Davos earlier this week, as they brace for a second round of his America First policies.

Without invoking Trump’s name, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned: “There are no winners in a trade war.” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels was ready to negotiate with Trump. But she also underscored the European Union’s diverging policy with him on climate, saying the bloc would stick by the Paris accord.

World Trade Organisation chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on cooler heads to prevail during a WEF panel discussion on tariffs on Thursday, warning that tit-for-tat levies would be “catastrophic” for the world economy. “Please let’s not hyperventilate,” she quipped. “I know we are here to discuss tariffs. I’ve been saying to everybody: could we chill, also?”

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2025