Trump lays out demands in virtual reintroduction to world stage

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  President Trump made his first major foray of the second administration the world stage today, delivering a virtual speech and taking questions from business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The president hit many of the same themes as in his inauguration address on Monday. Before an audience comprised of world leaders and top businesspeople, he railed against the European Union, again threatened to levy major tariffs on adversaries and allies alike, ruminated on global energy markets, and spoke of his hopes to end the war in Ukraine, which will enter its fourth year next month.

  Lisa Desjardins starts our coverage.

• Man:

  The president of the United States.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  At the Davos World Economic Forum, President Trump's virtual reintroduction on the world stage.

  Donald Trump, President of the United States: Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  The president had clear instructions for other world leaders.

• Donald Trump:

  If you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff, differing amounts, but a tariff.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  And a list of demands.

• Donald Trump:

  Saudi Arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in America, but I will be asking the crown prince, who's a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  More money, lower prices.

• Donald Trump:

  And I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  And a higher spending bar for NATO countries.

• Donald Trump:

  I'm also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  While at home, on the Resolute Desk, a new batch of freshly signed executive orders, among them, declassifying files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

  Mr. Trump also signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion activists and created a cryptocurrency advisory council. Asked about the Ukraine war, he said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to talk with Vladimir Putin.

• Donald Trump:

  He's ready to negotiate a deal. He'd like to stop. He's somebody that lost a lot of soldiers, and so did Russia, lost a lot. Russia lost more soldiers. They lost 800,000 soldiers. Would you say that's a lot? I'd say it's a lot.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  The night before, Trump appeared in a wide-ranging interview from the Oval Office with FOX News' Sean Hannity.

• Donald Trump:

  FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I'd rather see the states take care of their own problems.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Trump said he wants a new approach to federal disaster aid, sharply limiting it.

• Donald Trump:

  I love Oklahoma, but you know what? If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. You don't need — and then the federal government can help them out with the money.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  He singled out California, reeling from ongoing wildfires, threatening to cut off aid and asserting that releasing water from Northern California would help, which local officials say is flat wrong.

• Donald Trump:

  I don't think we should give California anything until they let water flow down into there…

• Sean Hannity, FOX News Anchor:

  From the north to the south.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Meanwhile, nomination mobilization. Former Congressman John Ratcliffe was sworn in as the CIA's new director soon after his Senate confirmation today, while defense secretary-designate Pete Hegseth narrowly won a key procedural vote in the Senate. Senators Collins and Murkowski voted against him, citing concerns about his experience and views on women in the military.

  But Hegseth is expected to get enough support to pass his confirmation vote tomorrow. From Democrats, some sharp pushback to one other nominee. Russell Vought is poised to direct the Office of Management and Budget and has strong conservative backing. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer singled out his nomination today.

• Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

  This guy is almost — he's probably at the very top of the list in terms of how dangerous he is to working people and to America. Mr. Vought is the godfather of the ultra-right. He is the chief cook and bottle washer for Project 2025, which would decimate the lives of so many Americans.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  As for the Trump agenda, today a first barrier. A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump executive order to end birthright citizenship, saying it is blatantly unconstitutional. That is not yet dissuading some Republicans in Congress who propose to codify Trump's birthright idea.

• Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX):

  This opportunity will not come again, at least not for a long, long time.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  In Washington, a sense of the opportunity and concerns around a fast-moving new presidency.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.