WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday during a wide-ranging press conference at Mar-a-Lago that he wants to see the country’s debt ceiling resolved while cutting spending, and he would not rule out using military force to expand U.S. territory.
Trump, who will take office later on January 20 legislators blithely certified following Monday’s election results, he continues to place blame on outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden for what he will be left with in his second term as he dives deeper into the GOP’s ambitious agenda.
“We are inheriting a difficult situation from an outgoing administration, and they are doing everything they can to make it more difficult,” Trump said. “Inflation continues to run rampant and interest rates are far too high, and I am disappointed to see the Biden administration attempt to block the reforms the American people are making and voting for.”
Reconciliation
As Republicans look to use a complicated legislative process called budget reconciliation to pass major changes to immigration, border security and tax policy, and also address the country’s debt limitTrump said Tuesday he wants to avoid defaulting on the nation’s debt.
“I just don’t want to see the default settings. That’s all I want,” he said. “Nobody knows what would have happened if there had been a default – it could have been 1929 and it could have been nothing.”
He added that raising or suspending the debt limit has no impact on his goal of reducing federal spending.
While Trump said he didn’t mind if Republicans conveyed their policy goals in one reconciliation package, he noted that “if two are more certain, it will actually go a little bit faster because you can address the immigration issues sooner.”
January 6 I’m sorry
Meanwhile, a day after the fourth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, Trump repeated his campaign promises that pardon people accused in connection with the January 6 riots.
However, he did not specify whether he would pardon people accused of violent crimes, saying: “We will look at the whole case, but we will make a significant pardon.”
Foreign affairs
Trump also did not rule out the use of military force to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland – two locations with critical implications for the transportation of global trade.
The government of Panama was given full control of the canal in 1999. Denmark has authority over Greenland, an autonomous territory. Greenland’s access to natural resources and national security implications are increasingly significant to the long-term interests of the United States.
“No, I can’t assure you on either of those two issues,” Trump replied when asked if he could assure the world that he would not use military or economic coercion to take over both locations.
“But I can say this: We need them for economic security,” Trump said. “I’m not going to commit to it. You might have to do something.”
He also said that “all hell will break loose in the Middle East” if hostages taken by Hamas are not released by the time he returns to the Oval Office.
Trump also announced that Dubai-based DAMAC Properties will invest at least $20 billion in the United States to support “massive new data centers in the Midwest, Sun Belt, and to keep America at the forefront of technology and artificial intelligence.” “
The president-elect said the first phase of investment would include Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.
He added that the name of the Gulf of Mexico should be changed to the American Gulf.
Offshore drilling
Trump struck Biden’s decision earlier this week prohibiting future oil and gas drilling on the entire East and West Coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the rest of Alaska’s northern Bering Sea, saying it would “reverse it immediately.”
It seems unlikely that Trump will be able to unilaterally reverse the protections. In the early months of his first term, he tried to roll back protections imposed by then-President Barack Obama, but a federal judge ruled that doing so exceeded his authority.
“We’re going to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said. “We will be drilling in many more locations and energy costs will come down significantly – they will be brought down to a very low level, and that will bring down everything else.”
Trump also said he would end the electric vehicle “mandate.” There is no federal mandate for electric vehicles, but Trump has said he wants to end it $7,500 Consumer Tax Creditand Republicans have at times characterized Biden administration rules tightening auto greenhouse gas emissions as an electric vehicle mandate.
Trump added that he wants to move away from wind energy.
“We will try to pursue a policy of not building windmills,” he said.
Last updated: 18:01, January 7, 2025
