WASHINGTON — President Trump told the world’s financial elite Thursday that America is “open for business” — saying he will demand that interest rates “drop immediately” while lowering energy costs and slashing corporate taxes and regulations.
Trump, 78, said he’s also pushing foreign countries to increase oil exports and working to boost domestic energy production to lower costs.
“America is back and open for business,” the Republican said during a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Trump made the call in a remote address to Davos elites. REUTERSTrump urged companies to “make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth” while blasting trade partners like the European Union for “very bad” existing tariffs on American imports.
The 47th commander in chief added that he was working with Republicans in Congress to slash the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, in a broader appeal to big business.
Trump’s call for lower interest rates, meanwhile, would make it easier for businesses and consumers to borrow money.
Costs for mortgages, loans and holding credit card balances surged under former President Joe Biden.
The president said interest rates should follow an anticipated decline in global oil prices — with crude having dropped by about 3.6% since his inauguration on Monday.
“With oil prices going down, I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately. And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world. Interest rates should follow us,” Trump said.
“The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we’re going to use it,” he said.
“Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, it will make the United States a manufacturing superpower at the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto — and my administration has also begun the largest deregulation campaign in history.”
The average credit card interest rate currently is 28.60% — nearly double the 14.6% average when Biden took office in January 2021 — while the average 30-year mortgage rate soared from 2.65% to 6.96% over the past four years.
Trump’s remarks put him on a potential collision course with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who insisted in November that the president would be powerless to fire him before the end of Powell’s current four-year term in early 2026.
Later Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that interest rates should come down “a lot.”
“Do you expect the Fed to listen to you?” a reporter asked.
“Yeah,” Trump said, also declaring: “I know interest rates much better than they do.”
During his first presidency, Trump regularly pressured the Fed to lower interest rates. which the central bank jacked up in 2022 in response to four-decade high inflation.
Republicans blamed the price spikes on Biden’s large spending bills, while Democrats attributed them to COVID-19 supply chain disruptions and Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Fed cut interest rates three times last year, but signaled it intends to make fewer cuts in 2025 — after inflation remained elevated above its 2% target.
Annual inflation was 2.9% in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Trump, who spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Wednesday, said in his Davos speech that he was “going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil.”
On his first day in office Trump repealed Biden’s bans on drilling along Alaska’s Arctic and Bering Sea coasts in a bid to increase American output as well.
The president also said lower oil prices would facilitate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war by lowering Moscow’s revenue.
“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue,” Trump said.
“You got to bring down the oil price, you’re going to end that war. They should have done it long ago. They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent for what’s taking place.”
