President-elect Donald Trump had much to say during a Tuesday press conference at Mar-a-Lago. While addressing reporters, the president-elect discussed a myriad of issues concerning foreign policy, energy, and trade.
The conference began with Trump inviting Hussain Sajwani, CEO of DAMAC Properties, to address the nation. The president-elect announced that DAMAC will be “investing at least $20 billion over a very short period of time into the United States, and they may go double or even somewhat more than double that amount of money.”
Trump said other investors would be forthcoming as the result of the 2024 election outcome. “Some of them like to do it somewhat more quietly, and some don’t. They feel so
DAMAC Properties is a luxury real estate developer company based in Dubai. Their investment will “support massive new data centers across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area, and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence,” Trump said.
Sajwani said the company had “been waiting four years to increase our investments in U.S. to very large amounts of money” and that they are “very, very excited now with [Trump’s] leadership and his open strategy and policy to encourage businesses to come to the U.S.”
The conference then turned to energy and President Joe Biden’s efforts to curb drilling for oil. He issued a series of executive orders banning offshore drilling on Monday. Trump said the orders “will not stand” and previously vowed to reverse them upon taking office.
I will reverse it immediately. It'll be done immediately. And we will drill, baby, drill. We're going to be drilling in a lot of other locations. And the energy costs are going to come way down. They'll be brought down to a very low level. And that's going to bring everything else down. That's what caused it to go up, along with the ridiculous spending on the Green New Scam, all this money, trillions of dollars. It's like throwing it right out the window, what they're doing.
Trump also slammed Biden’s plan to replace gas heaters with electric units. “This guy loves electric. We're going to be ending the electric car mandate quickly, by the way. This guy loves electric, and we don't have enough electricity,” the president-elect said.
Trump touted gas heaters, saying they are “much cheaper to operate” and pointing out that “60 percent of homes and apartments have gas heaters.”
He added: “He wants them all removed quickly. These people are crazy. There's something wrong with them. They also want to go back…to when you buy a faucet, no water comes out because they want to preserve…No water comes out of the shower. It goes drip, drip, drip. So what happens, you're in the shower ten times as long.”
Trump also discussed the war between Israel and Hamas, repeating threats made earlier related to the hostages Hamas took during its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “All hell will break out. If those hostages aren't back,” Trump declared. “If they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East. And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out. I don't have to say anymore, but that's what it is.”
Afghanistan also came up during the conference, with Trump criticizing President Biden’s botched military withdrawal from the region. “I would have been out before them, but we would have out of Afghanistan with dignity and strength as opposed to looking like a bunch of fools with 13 dead and many, many badly, horrifically injured,” the president-elect said.
When asked about the war between Russia and Ukraine, Trump highlighted that the primary point of contention when it comes to potential peace talks is the role NATO might play. “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin said you could never have NATO involved with Ukraine,” Trump said.
He continued, noting that Biden said, “No, they should be able to join NATO” and that Trump “could understand their feeling about that.” The president-elect explained that “there were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation” and that when he heard how Biden was handling the discussions, “I said: ‘You’re going to end up in a war,’ and it turned out to be a very bad war, and it could escalate.”
Trump also discussed his issues with the Panama Canal and his row with the Panamanian government.
The Panama Canal is a disgrace, what took place at the Panama Canal. Jimmy Carter gave it to them for $1, and they were supposed to treat us well. I thought it was a terrible thing to do. It was the most expensive structure ever built in the history of our country, relatively. It would be the equivalent of substantially over a trillion dollars today. We lost 38,000 people. Think of it, 38,000 people, they died from malaria, mosquitoes. They were unable to stop the mosquitoes. They paid people five times more to take the job. Many of those people died. We gave it away for a dollar. But the deal was that they have to treat us fairly. They don't treat us fairly. They charge more for our ships than they charge for ships of other countries. They charge more for our Navy than they charge for navies of other countries. They laugh at us because they think we're stupid, but we're not stupid anymore.
Trump further stated that the Panamian government “violated every aspect of the agreement” and that “they want our help because it’s leaking and not in good repair.”
When it comes to trade, Trump reiterated his promise to impose tariffs on countries like Mexico. “We have a massive deficit with Mexico, and we help Mexico a lot,” the president-elect said, also pointing out that the government is “essentially run by the cartels.”
He then announced, “We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory.”
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