During the Biden administration, the United States was plagued by the nightmare of stagflation, which meant low growth and high inflation, a recipe for misery, failure, and recession.
Article author and source: Tencent News
The following is the full text of Trump's speech at Davos.
Thank you so much, Larry. It was a pleasure to return to beautiful Davos, Switzerland, to speak to so many respected business leaders, friends, a few adversaries, and all the distinguished guests. I must say, it was a veritable who's who.
I bring truly extraordinary news from the United States to this year's World Economic Forum. Yesterday marked my first anniversary in office, and today, 12 months after returning to the White House, our economy is thriving.
Growth is exploding, productivity is soaring, investment is surging, incomes are rising, and inflation has been defeated. Our once open and dangerous borders are now closed and virtually impenetrable. The United States is undergoing the fastest and most dramatic economic transformation in its national history.
During the Biden administration, the United States was plagued by the nightmare of stagflation, meaning low growth and high inflation—a recipe for misery, failure, and recession. But now, just one year after I implemented my policies, we are experiencing the exact opposite: virtually no inflation and exceptionally high economic growth—something I believe you will soon see in a way that our country has never seen before, and perhaps no country at all.
Core inflation has been just 1.6% over the past three months. Meanwhile, fourth-quarter growth is projected to reach 5.4%, significantly higher than my and several others' forecasts. Since the election, the stock market has hit 52 all-time highs. So, in one year, 52 records have added $9 trillion in value to retirement accounts, 401(k)s, and personal savings.
People are doing very well. They are very happy with me. Since I took office, we have helped more than 1.2 million people get out of food stamps. And in four years, Biden has secured less than $1 trillion in new investment in our country. Think about it, $1 trillion is far less than that.
In four years, we have committed a record $18 trillion in investment commitments, and the final figures are expected to bring the total to nearly $20 trillion. This has never been done by any other country at any time, not even close.
Just over a year ago, under the rule of radical left-wing Democrats, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country in the world. In fact, the U.S. economy will grow at twice the rate the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted last April. And based on my growth and tariff policies, that number should be even higher—I truly believe we can do even higher. This is all good news, and good news for all countries.
The United States is the economic engine of the world. When the United States prospers, the whole world prospers. That's history. Once it breaks down, it breaks down, and the whole... you all go down with us, and you all go up with us. We are now at a stage I never imagined, a stage I never thought could be completed so quickly. My biggest surprise is that I thought it would take more than a year, maybe a year and a month, but the progress has been very fast.
This afternoon, I want to discuss how we achieved this economic miracle and how we intend to raise the standard of living for our citizens to unprecedented levels. Perhaps you and the place you come from can follow our lead and do even better. Because some parts of Europe are unrecognizable, frankly, unrecognizable now.
We could argue, but we didn't. Friends come back from different places—I don't want to offend anyone—and say, 'I don't recognize it,' which isn't positive. It's very negative. I love Europe and want it to be better, but it's not heading in the right direction. For decades, there has been a prevailing view in Washington and European capitals that the only path to economic growth in the modern West is through ever-increasing government spending, uncontrolled mass emigration, and endless foreign imports.
The consensus is that so-called dirty jobs and heavy industry should be moved elsewhere, economically viable energy should be replaced by the Green New Deal, and the country can be supported by importing entirely new and completely different populations from distant countries.
This is exactly the path that the "Sleepy Joe" Biden administration and many other Western governments have foolishly followed, abandoning everything that makes a nation rich, strong, and prosperous—and many of those nations hold enormous potential.
The result is record budget and trade deficits, and ever-expanding sovereign debt driven by the largest wave of migration in human history. We have never seen anything like it. Frankly, many parts of our world are being destroyed right before our eyes, and leaders don’t even understand what’s happening—and those who do understand are doing nothing.
Almost all so-called experts predicted that my plan to end this failed model would trigger a global recession and runaway inflation. But we have proven them wrong. In fact, quite the opposite. Within a year, our agenda has brought about changes in America unlike anything seen in a century.
We didn't shut down power plants; we opened them up. We didn't build inefficient, money-losing windmills; we demolished them without approving any of them. We didn't empower bureaucrats; we fired them and sent them to work in the private sector for two to three times their government salaries. So, they initially hated me because we fired them, but now they love me.
Instead of raising taxes on domestic producers, we lowered taxes and increased tariffs on foreign countries to compensate for the losses they caused. In 12 months, we removed more than 270,000 bureaucrats from the federal payroll—the largest single-year reduction in government employment since the end of World War II. Nobody expected this, but we had no choice. A nation cannot be great entirely on federal jobs.
We cut $100 billion in federal spending this year and reduced the federal budget deficit by 27%. This will further reduce inflation, bringing it significantly down to well below the historic highs of the Biden administration. The monthly increases are getting higher and higher. I promised to cut 10 old rules for every new rule, but so far I've actually cut 129 rules per batch of new rules. So, every time they bring in new rules, we do at least 10. But so far, the average is 129, if you can believe it.
This July, we passed the largest tax cut in U.S. history, including exemptions from tip tax, overtime tax, and Social Security tax, benefiting our senior citizens. We also offered 100% tax credits—which they loved—and depreciation incentives for all new equipment and capital investments to help the company expand and move production to the U.S. They absolutely loved the program. They built the factory and can deduct all expenses immediately, instead of waiting 38 to 41 years as before.
This is a miracle happening. Nobody thought any country could do it, but we did. It made my first term our most financially successful four-year term. Now we're going up a mile. It's a 10-year program, not a one-year program, but you can deduct all costs within one year—it used to be 38 to 41 years.
Through tariffs, we dramatically reduced our ever-growing trade deficit, the largest in world history. We were losing over $1 trillion a year, and all of that was going to waste. But in one year, I slashed our monthly trade deficit by a staggering 77%—and all of this without inflation, which everyone said was impossible. There were a few very intelligent people who genuinely thought I was right. I thought I was right. Now they all think I was right because they can't believe the numbers.
U.S. exports have now exceeded $150 billion, and domestic steel production is increasing by 300,000 tons per month, and is expected to double in the next four months. Doubling, tripling, we're building steel plants across the country. Nobody expected to see this. Plant construction has increased by 41%, and that number is going to rise dramatically now because they're going through an approval process—which we've already approved very, very quickly.
In the process, we entered into historic trade agreements with partners who account for 40% of U.S. trade—partners that are among the world’s greatest companies and nations. We also have countries as partners: European countries, Japan, South Korea—they are our partners. They have signed huge agreements with us, especially in oil and gas, which have fueled growth and boosted stock markets—not just in the U.S., but in almost every country involved in the deals. Because, as you know, when the U.S. rises, you follow. It really has become a common element.
In the United States, I stopped those devastating energy policies that drove up prices while sending jobs and factories to the world’s worst polluters. And they really are the polluters. Under the sleepy Biden administration, new domestic oil and gas leases dropped by 95 percent. Think about it. They wondered why gasoline prices were rising so fast. Gasoline prices were actually over $5 a gallon, and in some places even $7, and over 100 major power plants were violently shut down by incompetent people who had no idea what they were doing.
Under my leadership, U.S. natural gas production has reached a record high, far ahead of the competition. U.S. oil production has increased by 730,000 barrels per day, and Venezuela alone added 50 million barrels last week. Venezuela was a remarkable place for many years, but then their policies went awry. Twenty years ago, it was a great country, and now it has problems. But we are helping them and those 50 million barrels; we will separate from them, and they will make more money than they ever have.
Venezuela will perform exceptionally well. We appreciate everyone's cooperation. We have been giving our all, we have been providing tremendous cooperation. After the attacks, after the attacks were over, they said, 'Let's make a deal.' More people should have done that, but Venezuela will earn more in the next six months than it has in the past 20 years. All the major oil companies will join us. It's fantastic. It's wonderful to see this.
The national leadership has done an excellent job. They've been very, very smart. Gasoline prices are now below $2.50 a gallon in many states, $2.30 in most, and soon the average price in many places will be below $2 a gallon. It's already down even further, at $1.95 a gallon. In many states, it's at $1.99—a number unheard of for years. In fact, since my previous administration, we've brought that number down to roughly these levels.
I signed an order directing and approving numerous new nuclear reactors. We are going to develop nuclear energy aggressively. I'm not particularly fond of it because I dislike the risks and dangers, but... the progress they've made in nuclear energy is incredible, and the progress in safety is even more incredible. We are very committed to nuclear energy, and now it is available at a reasonable price and in a very, very safe manner.
We are far ahead of the world in artificial intelligence. We are far ahead of China. I think they respect what we are doing, partly because I allow these big companies to build these massive structures and establish their own power capacity. They are building their own power plants, which adds up to more than any other country or place in the world. I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal saying that China is creating a lot of energy, and they really are. I have to admire them.
But we created just as much, or even more, energy than they did, and we let them do it. I'm very proud of it. It was my idea. I said, "You can't generate that much energy." Just for the AI factory alone, we'd need more than twice the energy the country currently has. I said, "We can't do that. We're using the old power grid system." Then I came up with an idea: "You guys are really smart. You have a lot of money. Let's see what you can do. You can build your own power plants." They looked at me. They didn't believe me. I think all the names here right now, if you want to know the truth, don't believe me. I said, "No, no, you can."
They came back two weeks later and found the plant was gone. They said, 'We thought you were joking.' I said, 'No, I'm not joking, you'll get approval in two weeks.' I always say, nuclear power will, nuclear power takes three weeks, but most things are quick... They're going to go into the oil and gas sector. They've even started using coal in some cases.
Because of my overwhelming victory in the election, the United States has avoided the catastrophic energy collapse that plagued all the European countries pursuing the new green scam—perhaps the biggest scam in history. The new green scam: Windmills everywhere, destroying your land. Destroying your land. Every time it turns, you lose $1,000. You should be making money from energy, not losing money.
In Europe, we've seen the radical left trying to impose its fate on the United States. They're working very hard. Germany's electricity generation is now 22% lower than in 2017, and that's not the current Chancellor's fault. He's addressing the problems. He'll do a great job. But what they did before he arrived... I think that's why he came. Electricity prices have gone up by 64%.
The UK produces only a third of the total energy it did in 1999. Think about it, a third. It sits on the North Sea, one of the world's greatest protected areas. But it doesn't use it, which is one of the reasons why its energy levels are catastrophically low and prices are equally high—high, very low.
Imagine, a third of you are sitting on the North Sea. They like to say, 'You know, it's exhausted.' It's not exhausted. It's been 500 years. They haven't even found oil yet. The North Sea is incredible. They don't let anyone drill. From an environmental point of view, they don't allow drilling. They make it impossible for oil companies to go there. They take 92% of the revenue. So, the oil companies say, 'We can't do it.' They come to me, 'Can you help?'
I hope Europe will do well. I hope Britain will do well. They sit on one of the world's most powerful energy sources and don't use it. In fact, their electricity prices have skyrocketed by 139%. There are windmills all over Europe. Windmills everywhere, but they are all failures. One thing I've noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money it loses, and the worse the country performs.
The consequences of these destructive policies are severe, including slower economic growth, declining living standards, lower birth rates, increased socially disruptive immigration, greater vulnerability to hostile foreign influence, and a significant reduction in military size. The United States cares deeply about the people of Europe. We really do.
I mean, I'm from Europe—Scotland and Germany. 100% Scottish, my mother. 100% German. We deeply believe in Europe as a link between civilizations. I want to see it thrive. That's why issues like energy, trade, immigration, and economic growth must be core concerns for anyone who wants to see a strong, unified West. Because Europe and those countries must do their own thing. They must move beyond the culture they created themselves over the past decade. What they've done to themselves is horrible. They're destroying themselves. It's beautiful here, so beautiful.
We want strong allies, not severely weakened ones. We want a strong Europe. Ultimately, these are national security issues, and perhaps no current problem speaks more to the situation than the current state of Greenland. Do you want me to say a few words about Greenland? I wasn't planning on saying anything, but I feel—I feel—I'd be judged very negatively.
I have the utmost respect for the people of Greenland and Denmark. But every NATO ally has a responsibility to defend its own territory. The fact is, no country or group of countries other than the United States can guarantee Greenland's security. We are a great force, far stronger than people realize. I remember they discovered this in Venezuela two weeks ago.
We'd seen something similar in World War II, where Denmark fell to Germany in just six hours, completely unable to defend itself or Greenland. Therefore, the United States was compelled—and we did, we felt obligated—to send its own troops to hold Greenland. We held on, at great cost. They never even had a chance to get there, but they tried. Denmark knew this perfectly well.
We were actually establishing a base for Denmark in Greenland. We were fighting for Denmark. We weren't fighting for anyone else. We were fighting to save Denmark. A huge, beautiful block of ice. Hardly land. It was a huge block of ice. But we saved Greenland, successfully preventing the enemy from gaining a foothold in our hemisphere. So, we were also fighting for ourselves. After the war, we won, but this time it was a huge success—without us, you might all be speaking German now, or even a little Japanese.
After the war, we returned Greenland to Denmark. How incredibly stupid of us to do that? But we did it, and we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now? So now our country and the world face far greater risks than ever before, because of missiles, nuclear weapons, and weapons of war that I can't even begin to describe.
Two weeks ago, they saw weapons nobody's ever heard of. They couldn't fire a single shot at us. They asked, "What happened?" Everything was in chaos. They said, "We've locked onto them. Pull the trigger." But nothing happened. No anti-aircraft missiles were launched. A plane fell from about 30 feet, right next to the sender. They said, "What the hell is going on?" These defense systems are made by Russia and China. So, they have to start all over again, I think.
Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory, strategically situated between the United States, Russia, and China, and largely undefended. It's right in the middle. When we return it, it won't matter much. You know, when we return it, it won't be the same as it is now. It won't matter, and for one reason only. You know, everyone's talking about minerals, and there are many places... without rare earth elements. There simply aren't any. There's rare earth processing, but there's so much rare earth that to find it you have to traverse hundreds of feet of ice.
This is not why we need it. We need it to achieve strategic national security and international security. This vast, insecure island actually belongs to North America, located on the northern border of the Western Hemisphere. That's our territory. Therefore, it becomes a core national security interest of the United States, and in fact, preventing external threats from entering our hemisphere has been our policy, something we have done very successfully for centuries. We have never been stronger.
That's why US presidents have been seeking to buy Greenland for nearly two centuries. You know, they've been trying to achieve this for two centuries. They were supposed to retain Greenland after World War II, but they had a different president. That's okay, people think differently. It's more necessary now than it was then.
However, in 2019 Denmark announced it would spend over $200 million to strengthen Greenland's defenses. But as you know, they only spent less than 1% of that amount—1%. There's no sign of Denmark there. I say this out of deep respect for Denmark; I love their people, and their leaders are excellent.
Only the United States can protect this vast land, this enormous block of ice, develop and improve it to the benefit of Europe, to the benefit of Europe, to the benefit of Europe, and to the benefit of us. This is why I am seeking immediate negotiations to discuss again the American acquisition of Greenland—just as we have acquired many other territories throughout history. Like many European countries, they have acquired much more. That's fine. A lot. If you look closely, some are actually backwards. Some people possess enormous wealth and vast lands scattered across the world. They've reversed course. They've returned to where they started. This will happen again, but some will grow.
But this will not pose a threat to NATO. It will greatly enhance the security of the entire alliance—the NATO alliance. The United States has been treated extremely unfairly by NATO. I want to tell you this. Think about it carefully, and no one can refute it. We have given so much and received so little in return. I have been a critic of NATO for many years, but I have contributed far more to NATO than any other president. If I hadn't been involved in my first term, you wouldn't have NATO.
The war with Ukraine is a prime example. We are thousands of miles apart, separated by a vast ocean. This was a war that should never have started, and it wouldn't have started if the 2020 US presidential election hadn't been rigged. It was a fraudulent election. Now everyone knows. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. This may be breaking news, but it should be. It was a fraudulent election. Elections cannot be tolerated. You need strong borders, strong elections, and ideally, a good media. I always say—strong borders, strong elections, free and fair elections, and a fair media.
The media is terrible. It's incredibly biased. It's very biased, it's terrible, but it will be corrected someday because it's losing all credibility. Think about it, when I won a landslide victory, a huge, overwhelming victory—winning all seven swing states, winning the popular vote, winning everything—and all I got was negative coverage. That means it has no credibility. If they want credibility, they have to be fair. So, you need fair media coverage, but you also need other factors, and I inherited a very, very bad situation.
If you look, borders are open, inflation is rampant, and everything was terrible when I took office. But I also inherited the chaos of Ukraine and Russia, which shouldn't have happened. I know Putin well. He and I would discuss Ukraine. It's his darling, but he wasn't going to do anything about it. I said, 'Vladimir, you're not going to do this.' He would never do it. What happened was horrible. I could foresee it happening. I could see it happening after I left.
Biden gave Ukraine and NATO $350 billion—that's a staggering amount, $350 billion. When I came in, like the southern border, inflation, our economy, I said, 'Wow, this place is in trouble,' meaning our country, all these things are out of control. But the border was out of control. We're dealing with this with the strongest border in the world.
I've been working on this war for a year, and in the meantime, I've resolved eight other wars. India, Pakistan... I've been... I've also resolved other wars, those wars... Vladimir Putin called me. Armenian. Azerbaijan. He said, "I can't believe you resolved this." They lasted 35 years. I settled it one day. President Putin called me. He said, "You know, I can't believe I worked on that war for ten years, trying to resolve it, but I couldn't." I said, "Do me a favor. Focus on resolving your war. Don't worry about that."
What does the United States get out of all this work and funding—besides death, destruction, and huge sums of cash flowing to those who don't appreciate what we've done? They don't value our work. I'm talking about NATO, I'm talking about Europe. They have to work on Ukraine; we don't. The United States is far away. There's a vast, beautiful ocean between us. We have nothing to do with it.
Before I came along, NATO was supposed to pay only 2% of GDP, but they didn't. Most countries didn't pay either. The US paid almost 100% of NATO's share. I managed to stop that. I said, 'That's not fair.' But more importantly, I got NATO to pay 5%, and they're paying now, and they're still paying now. So, things nobody said are possible. They said, 'We'll never go above 2%.' But they lowered the 5% tax rate to 5%, and now they only pay 5%. They didn't pay those two brackets, now they pay five, and they're stronger because of that. By the way, they have a very good Secretary General, and he's probably in the room. Mark, are you there? Yes, he's here. Hello, Mark.
We never ask for anything, and we've never received anything. Unless I decide to use excessive force and power, we might get nothing, and then, frankly, we'd be invincible. But I won't do that. Understand? Right now, everyone's saying, 'Oh, great!' That's probably the biggest thing I've ever said, because people think I'll use force. But I don't need to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force.
All the United States asked for was a place called Greenland. As trustees, we already possessed it, but recently returned it respectfully to Denmark. We returned it to them after defeating the Germans, Japanese, Italians, and others in World War II. We were a powerful force then, but we are stronger now.
Since my first term rebuilding the military, and continuing to this day, our budget has reached $1.5 trillion. We're bringing back battleships. Battleships are 100 times more powerful than the great battleships you saw in WWII. Those magnificent, splendid ships: the USS Missouri, the USS Iowa, the USS Alabama. Because I thought maybe we could rescue them from mothballing. They said, 'No, sir, these ships are 100…'—think about it, 100 times more powerful than those huge, magnificent works of art you used to see on television. You'd say, 'Wow, what immense power'—100 times more powerful per ship—100 times more powerful than the large battleships of the past. So, the story of mothballing ends here.
So, all we get from NATO is protection of Europe from the Soviet Union and now Russia. I mean, we've helped them for so many years and never received anything in return. But we paid NATO, and we paid for many years, until I came here, and in my view, we paid 100% of NATO's fees because they didn't pay their bills. All we ask for is the right to Greenland, including ownership and usage rights, because you need ownership to defend it. You can't defend that with a lease. First, legally, it's completely undefendable. Second, psychologically, who would defend a licensing or lease agreement? It's a huge patch of ice in the middle of the ocean; if war breaks out, most of the action will be on that ice. Think about it. Those missiles fly right through the center of that ice.
Our aspirations for Denmark, for national and international security, and to contain our most dynamic and dangerous potential adversaries, lie in this land where we will build the greatest golden dome ever. We are building a golden dome that will essentially protect Canada.
By the way, Canada has received a lot of freebies from us. They should be grateful, but they aren't. I saw your Prime Minister yesterday, and he wasn't so grateful. They should be grateful to the United States and Canada. Canada exists because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, next time you speak.
What we did for Israel is amazing, but it's nothing compared to what we've done for the United States, Canada, and the rest of the world. We built a unique dome. We did it, and we did it for Israel. By the way, I said to Bibi, "Bibi, stop taking credit for the dome. That's our technology. That's our work." But they were very courageous, excellent soldiers, and did a great job. We eliminated the Iranian nuclear threat, which was incredible. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. We did a lot when Venezuela overthrew Soleimani, eliminated Baghdadi, and when he tried to re-establish ISIS. I did a lot, a lot of big things, and executed them perfectly. Every single one of them was executed perfectly. Someone told me, a military expert told me, "Sir, everything you've done has been executed perfectly." I said, "I know."
Therefore, other presidents, whether foolishly or not, have spent trillions of dollars on NATO and gained nothing. We have never asked for anything. It has always been a one-way street. Now they want us to help them with Ukraine. Let me say, we will. I am really helping, and even they haven't helped, I want to see… Last week, if you look, there were 10,000 soldiers, but last month there were 31,000 soldiers, dead. 31,000—that's the number of people in this room multiplied by 30. Think about it, 30,000 soldiers killed in one month.
The previous month it was 27,000; the month before that, 28,000; the month before that, 25,000. It's bloody and brutal there, and that's exactly what I'm trying to stop. This isn't helping America. But these are souls. These are young men. Look at you guys, sitting in the front row. They go to war. Their parents are so proud… “Oh, he's gone.”… Two weeks later, they get a call: ‘Your son's head has been blown off.’ I want to stop this. This is a terrible war. This is the worst since World War II. If they continue, it will surpass World War II. The numbers are staggering, how many they've lost. They don't want to talk about it. Ukraine and Russia have suffered heavy losses.
I'm dealing with President Putin, and he wants to reach an agreement. I believe I'm dealing with President Zelensky, and I feel he wants to reach an agreement. I'm going to see him today. He's probably in the stands right now. But they have to stop the war because too many people are dying needlessly. Too many souls are being lost. That's the only reason I'm interested.
But by doing this, I'm helping Europe. I'm helping NATO, and until recently when I told them about Iceland, they all liked me. Last time they called me "Dad," that's right. A very smart guy said, "He's our dad. He's in charge." I was in charge then. I went from being in charge to being a terrible person.
But what I'm asking for now is a piece of ice—cold and poorly positioned—that can play a crucial role in world peace and global protection. This is insignificant compared to what we've been asking of them for decades. The problem with NATO is that we'll support them 100%, but I'm not sure if they actually support us. If we call them and say, 'Gentlemen, we're under attack. We're under attack from some country,' I know them all too well, and I'm not sure they'll be there. I know we'll support them. I don't know if they'll support us. So, despite all the money we've spent, all the blood, sweat, and tears we've poured in, I don't know if they'll support us. They don't support us in Iceland, I can tell you that. Our stock market fell for the first time yesterday because of the Icelandic situation.
So, Iceland has already cost us a lot of money. But this drop is negligible compared to the actual rise, and we have an incredible future for this stock; the price will double. We will reach 50,000, and the price will double in a relatively short period of time, all because of what is happening right now.
But this is a prime example: after NATO and European countries have spent trillions of dollars on defense, they've bought our weapons. We build the greatest weapons in the world, but now we're going to make them faster, much faster. You see? I capped salaries, no buybacks, no stock buybacks, and none of the other things they do. I mean, they make fifty million dollars, but to give you a Patriot missile, it takes them three years. I said, "That's not good. My driver can do better; he makes slightly less than 50 a year." They're paid well.
If they want high salaries, they have to produce faster. The good news is we now have the most advanced equipment in the world. We'll start speeding up. They'll expand more factories. All the money used for stock buybacks will be used to build factories. We no longer allow defense companies to buy back their own stock. They'll build new factories to manufacture Tomahawks, Patriots—we have the best equipment—F-35s, F-47s, and the newly launched aircraft. They say it's the most destructive aircraft and fighter jet ever made. Who knows? They call it 47, and if I don't like it, I'll remove the number 47. I wonder why it's called 47? What's the point? But if I don't like it, I'll dismantle that number 47. But it was supposed to be a sixth-stage aircraft, the first sixth-stage aircraft. Undetectable, like our B-2 bombers, they flew directly over Iran. Undetectable, completed their mission, and quickly escaped.
So we wanted a piece of ice to protect the world. But they won't give it to us. We never asked for anything else; we could have kept that piece of land, but we didn't. So they have a choice. You can say "yes," and we'll be very grateful; or you can say "no," and we'll remember. A strong and secure America means a strong NATO, which is one of the reasons I work every day to ensure our military is very strong. Our borders are very strong, and most importantly, our economy is strong because national security requires economic security and economic prosperity, and we have the strongest nation ever.
Biden and his allies have destroyed our economy, giving us what is possibly the worst inflation in American history. They say 48 years, I say forever—but I think 48 years is the same as forever. Whether it's 48 years or forever, it's terrible; the average family spent $33,000. What they did to this country should never, ever be forgotten. It's early, but he must be ranked as the worst president to date.
Mechanical pens have caused a lot of damage, mainly the majority of the losses. Mechanical pens, because he's the chairman of the Mechanical Pen Society, I don't believe a sensible president would sign something like what he signed. But now, grocery prices, energy prices, airfares, mortgage rates, rents, and car loan payments are all falling, and falling very quickly.
We inherited a mess, but we've done an excellent job in 12 months. Prescription drug prices are falling by as much as 90% under the national drug pricing policy I most support. You could also say 5-6-7-800% depending on your calculations—there are two ways to calculate it. But we have a "country-biased" policy that every president wants. No president has been able to do it. I got it, other countries approved it, and I had to use tariffs to get it because they said, 'Absolutely not.'
In other words, a pill that costs 10% of the price in London costs $130 in London, and $130 in New York or Los Angeles. I would say, “Wow, that’s not good.” My friends would say, “You know, let’s go to London. You can buy these things for free. We travel all over the world. We can buy it for free.” Because basically, the US is subsidizing every country in the world because presidents allow them to get away with it. This becomes very difficult.
So when I called Emmanuel Macron… I saw him yesterday wearing those nice sunglasses. What happened?… But I saw him being very tough. But he charges $10 a pill, and I said, “Emanuel, I have complete agreements with all the big pharmaceutical companies. By the way, it wasn’t easy. They’re tough, smart. They’ve been getting away with it for so long, but now they’ve given up. But they say, ‘You’ll never get state approval.’ I said, ‘Why not?’ Because they won’t. They always say, ‘We’re not paying anymore. Give the rest to the United States.’” So all these years, they haven’t changed, and we’ve just climbed all the way up. And we pay 13, 14, 15 times more than some countries.
So I said, “No, they’ll approve it 100 percent.” “Sir, you’ll never get them to approve it.” I said, “I promise.” But I actually started with Emmanuel, who might be in the room too. And I like him. I actually quite like him. Unbelievable, isn’t it? I said, “Emmanuel, you have to raise that bill to $20, maybe $30. Think about it, that means doubling the prescription drugs. Maybe tripling. Maybe quadrupling. It’s not going to be easy.”
“No, no. Donald, I won’t do that,” I said. “Yes, you will, one hundred percent.” He said, “No, no, no, you’re asking me to double down.” I said, “Emmanuel, you’ve been exploiting America with prescription drugs for 30 years. You really should, and you will, I have no doubt. In fact, I’m one hundred percent sure you will.” “No, no, no, I won’t.”
Because, to be fair, that really means doubling, even tripling. Because the world is bigger than the United States, it's not the middle ground, it's just going up, we're going down a lot. They'll go up a little, we'll go down a lot. So, we're $130, they're $10. So, they might have to go up to $20 or $30, but at most not more than that.” I said, “Emanuel, you want double or even triple.” “No, no, no.” I said, “That's a story, Emanuel, the answer is, you'll do it. You'd better hurry. If you don't, I'll put a 25% tariff on everything you sell to the United States, and a 100% tariff on your wine and champagne. That's about ten times what I'm asking for, and you'd better do it. I don't want to make it public, but you might force me to do it.” “No, no, Donald, I'll do it. I'll do it.”
I spend an average of three minutes in each country saying the same thing, “You will do it.” They all say, “No, no, I won’t. You’re asking me to double the price of prescription drugs.” I say, “That’s right, because you’ve been ripping us off for 30 years.” They say, “We won’t do that.” I say, “That’s okay. On Monday morning, we’ll release 25, 30, 50…” I give different numbers for different countries.
This is also about national security; we can't afford to fail. We won't subsidize the whole world. And all these countries have agreed. So, one of the biggest things I've done is that we are now the most anticipated country, willing to pay the lowest prices in the world. So, our drug prices will drop by an astonishing 90%. You can say 1000%, 2000% depending on how you want to interpret it, but we'll judge it the way fake news prefers because it sounds... can you imagine, a 90% reduction sounds worse. But drug prices in various countries will drop significantly, and I'm grateful they did it, but they really did.
To be fair, without tariffs, I simply couldn't have done this job. After a $3,000 reduction during Biden's presidency, real income in the US increased by $2,000, $3,000, even $5,000 or more. Homeownership has always been a symbol of a healthy and vibrant American society, but in the Biden era, millions are unable to achieve this goal due to soaring interest rates.
Today, I'm taking action to bring back the cornerstones of the American Dream. In recent years, Wall Street giants and institutional investment firms—many of you are here. Many of you are my good friends, many are supporters, and I apologize for saying so. I'm sorry, but you've driven up prices by buying hundreds of thousands of single-family homes, which has been a great investment for them. Typically, there are as many as 10% of homes on the market. You know, the craziest thing is that an individual can't depreciate a house, but when a company buys it, they can. Well, that's something we have to consider too. I don't know how many people think about this.
You buy a company. They buy 500 houses. They buy hundreds of thousands. They buy 500 houses. They can accept depreciation. One person works hard and buys a house, they can't. But housing is built for people, not for businesses, and America will not become a renter's country. We will not do that. That's why I signed an executive order banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. It's unfair to the public. It's not that they can't afford houses. I'm calling on Congress to make this ban permanent, and I believe they will.
One of the biggest obstacles to saving for a down payment is the ever-increasing credit card debt. Credit card companies now have profit margins exceeding 50%, among the highest. They charge Americans 28%, 30%, 31%, 32% interest rates—where are the loan sharks going? So, to help our citizens recover from the Biden disaster, all caused by this terrible president, I urge Congress to cap credit card interest rates at 10% per year. This would help millions of Americans save for a home. They have no idea they're paying 28%, paying a little late, and ending up losing their homes. It's awful.
To unleash innovation, savings, and financing, I'm also working to ensure America continues to be the world's crypto capital. To that end, last year I signed the landmark Genius Act into law. Now Congress is working very hard to push forward with crypto market structures, legislation, and Bitcoin, and I hope to sign it soon, paving a new path to financial freedom for Americans.
I did this for two reasons. First, I thought it was politically good, and I got tremendous political coverage and support. But more importantly, China wanted that market too. Just like they wanted artificial intelligence, and I think we've got that market firmly under our control. If I hadn't done it… Biden was completely against it at the time, and until just before the election, they realized millions of people were voting against him because of cryptocurrency, and suddenly they really liked it, but it was too late. They messed up. But while it's politically popular, more importantly, we have to make sure China can't control it, and once they do, we can't take it back. So I'm honored to have done this.
Finally, I have instructed government-backed agencies to buy up to $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to lower interest rates. I will be announcing a new Federal Reserve chairman in the near future. I think he will do a very good job. For example, he sent some things out. He really exposed that. So, we have things, we get what we want, but we need to find a very respected person. They are all respected. They are all great. Everyone I interviewed was great. I think everyone could do a very good job. The problem is, once they get the job, they change. They say everything I want to hear, and then they get the job, are locked in for six years, get the job, and suddenly, 'We'll raise the rate a little bit.' I call and say, 'Sir, we don't want to talk about that.' It's amazing how people change once they get the job. It's a shame, a little disloyal, but they can only do what they think is right.
We have a terrible chairman now, Jerome Powell "too late." He's always too late, and interest rates are always very late; except before the election, he's completely fine with the other side. So, we'll find a great person, and hopefully he'll do a good job. Last week, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell below 6% for the first time in many years. Another major factor driving up housing costs is the massive incursions into our borders.
Regarding housing, I must say something because nobody else would say this. I'm very protective of people who already own homes; we have hundreds of thousands of homes. And because we've had such a good run, home prices have skyrocketed. These people have become wealthy. They're not wealthy because of wealth, but because of family connections. Every time you make it increasingly possible for people to buy homes at lower prices, you're clearly actually damaging the value of those homes, because the two are synergistic. I also don't want to do anything that would affect the value of homes owned by people who, for the first time in their lives, walk the streets of their city, very proudly acknowledging that their homes are worth $500,000, $600,000, or $700,000.
If I wanted to really destroy the housing market, I could do it very quickly, making it possible for people to buy homes, but that would destroy a lot of people who already owned homes. In some cases, they mortgaged their homes, the mortgages were low, but suddenly, without any change, the mortgages became very high, and eventually they lost their homes. I'm not going to hurt you. I've spoken to Scott, and he's doing a fantastic job, Howard has done a fantastic job, and my whole team, and I always say, 'Look, I can beat the market. We can bring interest rates down to a level…' That's something we really want to do, it's natural, and it's good for everyone."
You know, interest rates are falling, and we should be paying much lower rates than we are now. We should. We should be paying the lowest rates in the world because without the US, you don't have a country. I mean, I have a case with Switzerland. We happen to be in Switzerland. Maybe I can tell you a short story.
But they didn't pay a single penny. They made beautiful watches, really great watches, Rolexes, all those watches, and they didn't pay the U.S. any fees when they shipped them. We have a $41 billion deficit, $41 billion, and this beautiful place—flew over, isn't it beautiful? So I said, "We'll put a 30% tariff on them, and then we can get some of it back." Not entirely. We still have a deficit, and a huge deficit. "We have $40 million to $41 million. That's a huge deficit," I said, "Let's put up a tariff." Different tariffs, different places, you're all part of it, some cases, some victims. But at the end of the day, it's a fair deal, and most of you understand that.
But we imposed a 30% tariff on Switzerland, and it was chaos. They called, and I mean, you wouldn't believe it. I know a lot of people from Switzerland, it's an incredible place, an unbelievable, wonderful place, but I didn't realize they were so great because of us. There are many other examples, I mean us, and probably other places, but most of their money comes from us because we never charge them anything.
So they came in, sold watches, no tariffs, nothing. They turned around and left. We made $41 billion just from that. So I said, “No, we can’t do that.” So I would propose, but there would still be a fairly large deficit, I raised it to 30%, and I guess it was the prime minister, I don’t think it was the president, I remember it was the prime minister, who called. A woman, and she repeated herself. She said, “No, no, no, you can’t do that. 30%, you can’t do that. We are a very small country.” I said, “Yes, but you have a very large deficit. You may be small, but your deficit is larger than that of a large country.” I said, “No, no, no, please. You can’t do it.” He kept repeating the same thing, “We are a small country.” I said, “But your country is very large, so…” To be honest, she disgusted me. I said, “Okay, thank you, Ma, I’m very grateful. Please don’t do that. Thank you very much, Ms. Ma.”
I got it to 39%, and then everything exploded. Everyone was coming to visit me. Rolex came to me, they all came to see me. But I realized I reduced it because I didn't want to hurt anyone. I didn't want to hurt them. We lowered it to a lower level. This doesn't mean the tax rate won't go up, but we've lowered the tariff level, but they're paying tariffs now.
But when I realized that we have so many places like this, places that make a fortune because of America. Without America, they make nothing. Think about it. Switzerland has made $41 billion off us. And as she said, Switzerland is a small place. I realized I didn't know I was so… because she was so radical. In that conversation, I realized that America is supporting the whole world. Many places, I can give you six or seven places, just the people in this small region, I know every single one of them, and they're all somewhat bowed down. They don't want to see me, they don't want to look me in the eye. But they're using America, everyone's using America.
But I've always been fair, giving them tariffs, no problem. But I realized that without us, Switzerland doesn't exist. Without us. There are no countries represented here. We want to work with these countries. We want to work with them. We don't want to destroy them. I could have said 39% to 40%, I could have said, 'I want 70% tariffs,' and then we could make money with Switzerland. But Switzerland would likely be destroyed, its economy would collapse. I don't want to do that.
But we should pay the lowest interest rate of all. I hope Scott is listening, because we should pay the lowest interest rate of all. Without us, without us, most countries simply cannot function. There's also the protection factor. Without our military—the most powerful military in the world—without our military, the threats you face are things you would never believe. You wouldn't believe we have no threats, and that's precisely because of NATO.
There's one more thing I must say, and it's very important. I used to say, 'I'm the youngest in the room.' Now I'm considered one of the older ones. I don't want to say that. I don't feel old, but I am considered one of the older ones. But I remember not long ago, 20 or 25 years ago, good news came out about America. "America had a great quarter." "America had a great month." All the stocks went up, and that was to be expected.
Now, when people say, "The U.S. had a record quarter," it's unbelievable how good it was. All the stocks crashed because they said, 'Oh no, inflation, inflation, they're going to raise rates.' And they really are, some fools like Powell. They'll raise rates. Their purpose is to prevent you from succeeding. In the past, when we had a good quarter, a good month, good results, any good news, the stock market would go up. That's how it is, and we have to do it again because that's how it's supposed to be.
Now, when we have a good month, they want to kill me. It's like when we do over 5% of the game, people are surprised. We should do 20%, we could do 25%. When we release good numbers, the reason is that they're terrified of inflation. Growth doesn't mean inflation. We've experienced extremely high growth and very low inflation. In fact, growth can fight inflation and achieve real growth. So, we want to go back to those days of releasing high numbers.
Because we're about to announce something amazing... you know, all these factories are under construction at a record pace, thousands of businesses are in the works. Remember, $18 trillion has been invested. I think the second figure is three, and that was many years ago in China. Investment from abroad—$18 trillion, nobody's ever seen that before. That's money flowing in, building factories. Thousands of businesses are under construction, thousands upon thousands. Hundreds of large factories.
Car factories are coming back to America. They're coming in from Canada. They're coming in from Mexico, from Japan. Japan is coming in to build factories here to avoid tariffs. They're coming in from China. They're coming in from all over the world. We have more factories under construction now than we ever did in the 1940s and 50s, even more. And on a much larger scale. They don't use renovations anymore, like tearing down the old ones… they tear it down and build a completely new, super-modern factory. But the scale of all this is unprecedented.
In 2024, fewer than 2 million new homes were built in the U.S., but Biden accepted over 8 million new immigrants—those days are over. In 2025, the U.S. experienced reverse immigration for the first time in 50 years. Wow, that's great! These criminals are being taken out of our country. Because they allowed people into our country from prisons, gangs, drug dealers, murderers—11,888 murderers. We've already saved most of our people.
Then ICE got bullied by the stupid people in the Minnesota leadership. We've actually been helping Minnesota a lot, but they're not grateful. It happens in most places. You know, Washington D.C. is now the safest place in America? It was a very dangerous place; now you can walk through downtown with your wife and kids. Currently, Washington D.C. is the safest city. I have to admit, it was one of the most dangerous, and we deployed the military, the National Guard. Within two months, everything was great. Within three months, it became a great, safe, and beautiful place. It's even been cleaned up. The graffiti is gone. The fences are gone. We don't have to worry about fences anymore. The grass everywhere will be mowed, and in many cases replaced with new grass; all of this will happen in the spring.
But Washington, D.C. is beautiful and safe again. New restaurants are opening. Right now, all the restaurants are closed; you can't get in. Restaurants in Washington, D.C. are all open. Memphis too. Memphis, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana. We'll be there for three weeks. We've already brought the crime rate down to 64%. In another month, we'll have almost no crime there. We can do it all over again. We want to help the people of California. We want no crime. I know Gavin has been here. I got along very well with Gavin when I was president. Gavin is a good man, and if he needs it, we'll help. I'll do it without hesitation. I'd love to see…we helped them a lot in Los Angeles, especially when we had some problems early in my term. But we'd love to do this.
I would say, if I were a Democratic governor or anyone else, I would call Trump and say, 'Come on in, let's make this look better,' because we're getting crime down to zero. We're taking away career criminals who only know how to do bad things and bringing them back to their countries. But the places we've done are amazing, and we have the capacity to do it on a much higher level.
We are cutting off welfare and other government benefits to undocumented immigrants, and I have instructed that, starting immediately, payments to sanctuary cities cease, because those cities are essentially just havens for criminals. They are effectively protecting criminals—the very people we must deport—murderers, drug dealers, the mentally unstable. They are emptying mental hospitals into the United States. Despite this, our crime rate is among the lowest in American history. (Just came out.)
But equally important, we are cracking down on the more than $19 billion in fraud stolen by Somali pirates. Can you believe that Somalia...is smarter than we think? We'd say these people are stupid, how could they get into Minnesota and steal so much money? We have their pirates, they are good pirates, but we shoot them down from the water like we shoot down drug ships.
Have you noticed they haven't been stealing ships much lately? When they went out on those ships, they wanted to take over a $1.5 billion oil tanker, fully loaded with oil, and say, 'We're going to blow your ship up.' They had powerful weapons. You rammed the side of the ship. You blew the whole thing up. The insurance companies were terrified, so they said, 'Give them the ship. We'll pay them.' But I didn't do that. We completely defeated them. We saw them go out. We knocked them out of the water. We have very few pirates now. If we go, they won't stay long.
We reduced the attacks by taking down ships carrying drugs, including submarines. Can you believe they actually bought small… they're called mini-submarines, and they're incredibly fast. They're used to carry drugs. We've taken down two of them. Democrats say, 'They're fishing. You're ruining someone else's fishing.' I don't think submarines are fishing boats. You don't fish. But we've taken down 97.2% of drugs through water, ocean, and sea—think about that number. I'd even say, 'Who's the other 3%?' because I don't want to be crammed onto those ships. We've taken them down, now it's time to start land operations. We're going to take it all down. Land is the easiest part; what we've done at sea is incredible—that's our great military.
The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot import foreign cultures on a large scale, and these cultures have never built successful societies. I mean, we took people from Somalia, and Somalia was a failure... It wasn't a country, no government, no police, no militia... nothing. And then we have this fake congressman, they just reported he's worth thirty million dollars, do you believe it? Ilhan Omar talks about the Constitution, and that gave me... She comes from a country that isn't really a country, and she's telling us how to govern America. Let me tell you, she won't last much longer.
The rise, fall, and construction of Western progress ultimately stemmed not from our tax laws, but from our very unique culture. This is a precious legacy shared by America and Europe. We share it. We share it. We must keep it strong. We must become stronger, more successful, and more prosperous than ever before. We must defend that culture and rediscover the spirit that led the West from the abyss of the Dark Ages to the pinnacle of human achievement.
We live in an incredible and changing time. It's an incredible time, but we must make the most of our time. We hold the technology our ancestors once feared... I mean, they couldn't even have dreamed of what we see today. And production is happening at an incredible pace. I mean, two years ago, nobody had even heard of artificial intelligence, and now everyone's talking about it. And it could have some very good uses. It could also have some dangerous uses, and we must be wary of that. But things are happening, and we're way ahead. We're doing very well.
But a greater, more magnificent opportunity than ever before in human history lies before us. It is the pioneers in this room. Many of you here are true pioneers. You are all so intelligent, so incredibly intelligent. It's amazing you were able to get tickets, since there are about 50 people in each seat. I don't know… that's Larry. Everything Larry touches turns to gold. He made this film a huge success. But you are in this room, some of you are among the greatest leaders in the world. You are the brightest minds in the world. The future is limitless. Largely because of you, or rather, because we must protect you, we must cherish you.
I always say that we should cherish those with exceptional talent, because such people are few and far between. Therefore, let us, with confidence, boldness, and perseverance, invigorate our people, develop our economies, defend our shared destiny, and build a future for our citizens that is more ambitious, exciting, inspiring, and greater than ever before. We are now capable of doing things that no one has ever imagined.
Many of you here are doing just that, and I want to congratulate you. I fully support you because you've accomplished things that no one else could have imagined. So, I congratulate you on your tremendous success. America is back, bigger, stronger, and better than ever before. See you again. Thank you very much. Thank you.
