President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted his administration’s economic policies in a speech delivered in Saudi Arabia.
The president is traveling through the Middle East this week in an effort to attract more investment in the U.S. economy.
“Most importantly for the people in this room, the days of economic misery under the last administration are rapidly giving way to the greatest economy in the history of the world,” Trump said.
“We are rocking. The United States is the hottest country – with the exception of your country, I have to say right, I’m not going to take that on. No, Mohammed, I’m not going to take that on,” Trump said in reference to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. “Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing if I made that full statement? But I will not do it, you’re hotter. At least as long as I’m up here, you’re hotter.”
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“Groceries, gasoline, energy and all other prices are down with no inflation. We have no inflation,” Trump said.
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Ahead of his remarks on Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing that the consumer price index (CPI), a popular inflation gauge, was 2.3% in April – down a little more than one point from the 3.4% reading in April 2024. That remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.
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Trump went on to discuss the labor market and said, “In a few short weeks, we’ve created 464,000 brand-new jobs. Think of that, that’s almost half a million jobs created in just a matter of weeks.”
The president also discussed the recently announced trade agreement with the United Kingdom and the deal with China to temporarily reduce the tariffs he imposed on Chinese goods, as well as China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports, for 90 days while negotiators work to formalize a final agreement.
“We just reached a historic trade agreement with the United Kingdom and over the weekend we reached a breakthrough agreement with China. Both outstanding deals,” Trump said.
“China’s agreed, we have to get it down and we have to get the details down – Scott [Bessent], you’re going to work on that very hard. But China’s agreed to open up to the United States for trade and everything else, but they have to do it, so we’ll see what happens,” he added.
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Trump said that Congress is “on the verge of passing the largest tax cut and regulation cut in American history. We think we’re in good shape to get that, and if we get that, that will be like a rocket ship for a country.”
He also said that investment in the U.S. was up “an astounding 22%” in the first quarter of 2025, adding that “more than $10 trillion of new investments have been announced or are coming just since the election on Nov. 5.”
“In a very short period of time, we have over $10 trillion and that could be much higher than that. Not everybody comes to the White House to have a news conference that they’re going to be opening up in America, but they’re all coming in at numbers that we’ve never seen before,” Trump said.
Original article source: Trump says US moving past ‘days of economic misery’ on Middle East trip
