Tariffs and oil Trump's main focus during Davos address

President boasts new 'golden age' and will meet Putin 'soon'

- ANDREW FEINBERG and ALEX WOODWARD

US President Donald Trump threatened business leaders with higher tariffs, vowed to "demand" decreased oil prices from OPEC and called for lower interest rates from central banks in a boast-filled address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Speaking by live video link from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus yesterday, Mr Trump opened his remarks with a long recitation of purported accomplishments, boasts about his administration’s record so far, and attacks on his predecessor, former president Joe Biden.

He said this week has been “a truly historic week in the United States” that represents the start of a “new golden age” for the US, and bragged of what he called a “massive mandate” from his electoral college win over former vice-president Kamala Harris in last year’s election.

“What we’re doing, and going to do, my administration, is acting with unprecedented speed to fix the disasters we’ve inherited from a totally inept group of people and to solve every single crisis facing our country. This begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration,” said Mr Trump, who bragged about having taken “rapid action to reverse each and every one of these radical left policies that created this calamity.”