Details of his latest cease fire -- with Macron -- remain murky. Trump thanked the French leader when asked about it in Davos, but did not reveal the specifics of what they agreed to. “We had a very good conversation, it worked out very well, the U.S. is very happy with the result and we appreciate very much what President Macron did,” Trump said.
Trump said his meeting with von der Leyen would be largely about trade. For her part, von der Leyen stressed the joint history of the countries and added only: “We have issues to discuss and we will negotiate.”
Trump met with the Swiss president, and extolled the virtues of trade, before thanking Macron. Trump’s speech also hailed America’s surging oil and gas production, and called on Europe to wean itself from “unfriendly” suppliers, likely a veiled rebuke of Russia.
“With an abundance of American natural gas now available, our European allies no longer have to be vulnerable to unfriendly energy suppliers either. We urge our friends in Europe to use America’s vast supply and achieve true energy security,” he said in his speech.
As the auto-tariff threat simmers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among the high-profile attendees at Davos. She and Trump are not scheduled to meet.
So when the day neared an end, Trump demonstrated again that he’ll play hardball, even with allies.
Speaking to reporters, he said he’s confident he can reach a trade deal with the EU but will strongly consider imposing tariffs on European cars without an agreement. “If we’re unable to make a deal we will have to do something because we’ve been treated very badly as a country for many many years on trade,” Trump said.
--With assistance from Shawn Donnan.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.