Speaking before the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald J. Trump railed against the U.S. Federal Reserve, China, the Paris Climate Agreement, and touted his administration’s efforts on deregulation, shaping the Federal judiciary, and stimulating the U.S. economy.
Trump credited his administration with creating 25,000 new jobs in mining, 128,000 energy and more than 600,000 manufacturing [Investable Universe had not independently verified these figures at time of publication], and presiding over higher returns for the major stock market indices since the November 2016 election.
He said these gains had occurred in spite of eight total U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes between December 2016 and December 2018, asserting that economic gains would be higher “if we had a Federal Reserve that worked with us.”
“That game”
Trump said the Fed had been “too fast to raise [rates] and too slow to decrease,” putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage to countries with negative interest rates. “Many [in negative-interest-rate countries] are getting paid when they pay off their loans. Who ever heard of such a thing? Give me some of that,” he said, adding, “I don’t say that’s good for the world. I’m not President of the world…[But] the Federal Reserve doesn’t let us play at that game.”
In the speech, Trump made repeated reference to median U.S. household income gains attained during his presidency to date.
Citing the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers as his source, he claimed that recent U.S. ascendance as a leading energy producer and net exporter had saved the average American family of four $2500 in lower fuel and electricity bills.
He also touted his administration’s steps to deregulate business, noting that an initial two-for-one regulatory elimination strategy (requiring the rollback of two regulations for each new one passed), had grown to a proportion of nine-for-one, and would be on track to reach 20-for-one without specifying a time frame. He said particular focus would be paid to cutting regulations in order to streamline approvals for infrastructure development.
He pointed to productive efforts to shape the federal judiciary, stating that close to 160 federal judges had been appointed under his administration so far, a figure expected soon to climb to 182. Figures from the White House website echo this claim, asserting that approximately one out of every four active judges on U.S. Courts of Appeals is a Trump appointee.
Noting that he would now take the time to redress “horrible, incompetent” trade deals in order to make American business “thrive, excel, compete, and win,” Trump turned attention to U.S. trade relations, directing partners to “play by the rules and respect our game.”
Trade partners
He said a partial trade deal was on track with Japan involving $40 billion in digital trade and agricultural products, but was yet to be finalized due to “strong negotiating” on the part of Japan.
He called the European Union “very difficult with trade barriers,” and “in many ways worse than China.”
But Trump’s crankiest talk was reserved for China, which Trump said “ransacked our companies, stole our intellectual property, subsidized their industries at the expense of ours, [and] dumped their products in a deliberate strategy to close our factories.”
He said that, particularly since its entrance into the World Trade Organization in 2001, “No one has manipulated numbers more than China…Nobody’s cheated better than China.”
Despite this assertion, he said that in still ongoing trade talks with the U.S., China is “dying to make a deal…[But] we’re deciding whether we want to make a deal. Phase One could happen soon, but only if it’s good for our workers and companies.”
Climate
Trump reiterated his opposition to the Paris Climate Agreement, from which the U.S. withdrew earlier this month, saying it would “put us [the U.S.] out of business.”
He said that as a longtime New York City real estate developer, he considered himself an environmentalist in matters of “clean air and crystal clear water,” but that other countries–specifically China, India and Russia–were not being held equally accountable to clean up the toxic waste emanating from within their own borders and resurfacing in “everything that floats into Los Angeles.”