WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump said during a wide-ranging news conference Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago that he wants to address the country’s debt limit while cutting spending, and he would not rule out using military force to expand U.S. territory.
Trump, who will take office on January 20th The legislature easily confirmed it Monday’s election results continued to blame outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden for what will be left to him in his second term as he embraces an ambitious GOP agenda.
“We are inheriting a difficult situation from the outgoing administration, and they are trying everything they can to make it more difficult,” Trump said. “Inflation continues to rage and interest rates are far too high, and I have been disappointed by the Biden administration’s attempt to block the reforms the American people voted for.”
reconciliation
As Republicans try to operate a complicated legislative process called budget reconciliation to pass significant changes to immigration, border security and tax policy, and address the country’s debt limitTrump said Tuesday he wants to avoid a default by the nation.
“I just don’t want to see a default. That’s all I want,” he said. “No one knows what would happen if there was a default – it could be 1929 and it could be nothing.”
He added that raising or suspending the debt limit would have no impact on his goal of reducing federal spending.
Although Trump said he was fine with Republicans pursuing their policy goals through a reconciliation package, he noted that “if two are safer, it goes a little quicker because you can get the immigration issues done sooner.”
Jan. 6 pardons
Meanwhile, the day after the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Trump reiterated his campaign promise that he would do so Pardon those charged in connection with the January 6th insurrection.
However, he did not say whether he would pardon those accused of violent crimes: “We will look at the whole thing, but I will make far-reaching pardons.”
Foreign Affairs
Trump also did not rule out using military force to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland – two locations with critical implications for the movement of global trade.
The Panamanian government was given full control of the canal in 1999. Denmark has sovereignty over Greenland, an autonomous territory. Greenland’s access to natural resources and its implications for national security are becoming increasingly essential to the long-term interests of the United States.
“No, I can’t assure you of any of these,” Trump said when asked if he could assure the world that he would not operate military or economic coercion to take over either site.
“But I can say this: We need it for economic security,” Trump said. “I’m not going to commit to that – you might need to do something.”
He also said that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if the hostages held by Hamas are not released when he is back in the Oval Office.
Trump also announced that a Dubai-based company, DAMAC Properties, would invest at least $20 billion in the United States to support “vast new data centers throughout the Midwest and Sun Belt region, and also around America.” to keep up with the latest technology.” and artificial intelligence.”
The president-elect said the first phase of the investment will take place in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.
He added that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America.
Offshore drilling
Trump struck Biden’s decision earlier this week to ban future oil and gas drilling off the entire east and west coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the remaining portions of Alaska’s northern Bering Sea, and said he would “immediately reverse this action.”
It seems unlikely that Trump will be able to unilaterally remove the protections. In the early months of his first term, he tried to roll back then-President Barack Obama’s protections, but a federal judge ruled that was beyond his authority.
“We’re going to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said. “We will drill in many other locations and the energy costs will go down significantly – they will go down to very low levels and that will bring everything else down.”
Trump also said he would end a “mandate” for electric vehicles. There is no federal mandate for electric vehicles, but Trump has said he wants to end that Consumer tax incentive of $7,500and Republicans have sometimes described the Biden administration’s rules tightening automobile emissions as an electric vehicle mandate.
Trump added that he wanted to say goodbye to wind energy.
“We will try to enforce a policy that no windmills will be built,” he said.
Last updated on January 7, 2025 at 6:01 p.m
