Speaker 1: We just saw Donald Trump take virtual center stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was his first major speech to global business and political leaders since taking office just a few days ago. It really was the first time as 47th president he addressed the number one issue for most Americans, the economy, beyond the top line promises we saw on day one of his presidency, including the inauguration. Some of the key issues, of course, are lowering inflation and how he is going to deal with job issues. CNN is covering this story from all angles. Richard Quest is on the ground in Davos. Jeff Zeleny is at the White House. Daniel Dale is, of course, our fact checker. I want to start first with you, Richard. You are there. You cover these issues in and out. What was your biggest takeaway?

Speaker 2: First of all, good luck, Daniel. As you try and fact check that lot, I am absolutely exhausted having listened to all of that. It was a potpourri of great hits. But if we actually sift it down to policy announcements that we learned from today, number one, he's calling on OPEC to lower the price of oil via the Saudis. He wants them to lower the price of oil. But at the same time, he wants the Saudis, who have already pledged to spend $500 billion, to raise that to $1 trillion. He says he's now hoping that the Crown Prince MBS will invest $1 trillion in the United States. He's going to now call upon NATO to increase the defence spending to 5%. Now, he talked about this during the election. But today, as I listened to the president, he said, I am calling on NATO to increase the defence spending to 5%. When barely, you know, it was a hard job to get them to the old target. This is going to be very difficult. And the biggie, in my view, the biggie on the economy, he has warned European production, European companies, European countries, manufacture in the United States. And these were the president's words. It's your prerogative not to. But if you choose not to, we will tariff. In other words, the threat, the gauntlet has now been thrown down. You manufacture domestically or we'll tariff the product. And he still seems to think that that won't cost American consumers more.

Speaker 1: Jeff, I want to play for our viewers a little bit of what the president said about what he considers his message for the audience.

Speaker 3: My message to every business in the world is very simple. Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth. We're bringing them down very substantially, even from the original Trump tax cuts. But 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.

Speaker 1: This is precisely what Richard was talking about there. Now, I wanted our viewers to hear it for themselves. You, Jeff, were with Donald Trump when he went to Davos, physically went there, not virtually like today. That was six years ago. What's your takeaway from what you heard?

Speaker 4: Look, there is no doubt that the message is largely similar in terms of America is open for business. But what is different, I think, is just the confidence in which he speaks and the delight he takes in rattling the cages of global leaders from the business sector to global government leaders. I mean, I think saying that, again, urging and calling on NATO to spend 5% of their GDP on defense, that is something he has said before, but never as president. But I think what we also saw there was something that we were going to be measuring this presidency by. That is the degree to how much he looks forward and how much he looks backward. And there was definitely a mix of that in this. He started the speech talking, again, about President Biden and still trying to cling to President Biden as a foil, still trying to sort of use the metric of that last administration as a way to propel this one. We'll soon, I mean, this is Donald Trump's government now, so we will see how long that lasts. But also raising the point of taxes. We've seen a flurry of executive actions. Donald Trump's presidency is going to be measured on his legislative successes. And lowering taxes, as he was talking about, the business taxes, the corporate taxes, is going to take Congress to work together. So I think that is something we are still waiting to see the president sort of to see if he can sort of corral Republicans there with very slim majorities into doing this. But also, I think on Ukraine, certainly interesting there, but he said he wants to meet or have a meeting with the Vladimir Putin very soon. And we know that his first world leader phone call was at the Saudi Crown Prince. Of course, that was his first foreign trip back when he first became president. So look for that connection as well. But I think just the degree to which he spoke with confidence. And as you said, Dana, he revels being in front of this audience, no question about it.

Speaker 1: Yeah, no question indeed. Thank you so much. And Daniel, Richard said that you have your work cut out for you, so I will cede you the floor. I want to start with that explanation of how tariffs work.

Speaker 5: Yeah, this is how the president habitually describes how tariffs work. He warns foreign countries they'll have to pay them. In fact, it is U.S. importers, not those foreign exporters, who pay the tariffs. And we know from study after study and from just our experience living in the world that those importers often pass on the increased cost caused by the tariff to U.S. consumers. So it is Americans who are paying, not the foreign companies. Dana, there were also a bunch of additional inaccuracies, exaggerations, misstatements on the subject of trade. He said it's not fair that we have a $200 billion or $250 billion trade deficit with Canada. Well, good news. It is not $200 billion or $250 billion. It's actually about $41 billion in goods and services. It's about $72 billion, even if you only count goods. And it's important to note that deficit is overwhelmingly caused by the fact that the U.S. imports a large quantity of cheap Canadian heavy crude oil that helps keep Americans' gas prices down. So that's why there is that smaller deficit. He also said the EU essentially doesn't take U.S. farm products. He said this over and over again. In fact, the EU, Dana, is the U.S.'s fourth biggest export market for agricultural products, taking about $12 billion worth per year. He complained that Joe Biden let the trade deficit with China get out of hand. In fact, the record trade deficit with China was actually set under the first presidency of Donald Trump in 2018. It's come down under Joe Biden. And he again referred to an electric vehicle mandate, saying that he's determined to let Americans buy whatever car they want. This is, I think, at least an exaggeration. It is true that Biden imposed strict new tailpipe rules that aim to push automakers towards making electric vehicles. Depending on how automakers respond, those rules could require them to make up to two-thirds of new cars sold in the U.S. be electric by 2032. But there has never been a Biden rule requiring any individual consumer to buy any individual kind of car. And then finally, he repeated his claim that he said, I think under Biden, we had probably the highest inflation in U.S. history. Yes, it was high, about a 40-year high at one point in 2022, never close to the all-time record of more than 20 percent decades past.

Speaker 1: Daniel, you are armed with so many facts and it's so important to have you at all times. But when you say something like, we know this because we live in the world, that was about the most perfect chef's kiss thing to say. Daniel, thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. I have a group of very talented reporters here at the table. It's Ted Herndon with the New York Times, CNN's Phil Mattingly and CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. Phil Mattingly, your takeaways?

Speaker 6: I think the things that really stood out to me were, look, top line, we know what the president wants to do. He's telegraphed not just his first term, but also throughout the time on his campaign trail. If we've learned anything over the course of the first 72 hours, Priscilla knows this better than anyone, being our immigration expert. He's doing what he said he was going to do. So when it comes to economics, when it comes to kind of how he wants the U.S. to be on the global stage when it comes to economics, he's telling big businesses and foreign countries, you put your companies here, I'll give you the lowest tax rate I can possibly negotiate with Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. If you don't, that's totally up to you, but you're going to get tariffs and you're going to get tariffs across everything. And if you want to know how jittery, uncertain and tea leaf reading the markets are right now, I had a trader for a fund, a lot of money, a fund, sorry, not trader, fund manager for a lot of money who texted me during that speech. And he was keyed on when Trump said that in the prerogative to do business wherever you want, but you're going to get tariffs. He said differing amounts in just two words in the middle of the types of tariffs that he would impose. The fund manager wanted to know, does that mean that it's not going to be a universal baseline tariff? Does that mean that it's not going to be 15% or 20%? That's where they're at right now, trying to figure out if this is a negotiating strategy, if they have a one singular number or if it's going to vacillate depending on the country.

Speaker 1: And I think part of it is he doesn't know, the president doesn't know the answer to that yet. And part of it is tactical, right? You were going to say something about that.

Speaker 7: Well, I was going to say fundamentally, it is that he views geopolitics in a very transactional way. That's what this really was as he was talking about investments and what happens if you don't invest. And that in and of itself, I think, is how he is approaching this term. Of course, how that unfolds and what the details are, are important, but it gives us that clear view now that he's off the campaign trail and installed as president as to how he's going to have and navigate these relationships.