President Donald Trump at Davos on Thursday said he will request a reduction in interest rates, and ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to reduce crude oil prices.
“I’m also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil. You got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn't do before the election. That didn’t show a lot of love by them not doing it,” Trump said in a virtual speech at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue. You got to bring down the oil price. You’re going to end that war. They should have done it long ago. They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what’s taking place. Millions of lives are being lost.”
“With oil prices going down, I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately, and likewise, they should be dropping all over the world,” Trump added. “Interest rates should follow us.”
The Federal Reserve sets interest rates in the United States, but it functions independently from the president in order to prevent a president from forcing economic decisions and changes based on politics and potentially harming the economy. Trump, however, has indicated he wants more direct control over the Fed.
His demand that oil prices drop, however, is not in his control. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group of oil-producing countries, can change crude oil prices when it deems production or demand are too low. But the U.S. has no control over OPEC. Furthermore, while the nationwide average of gas prices at the pump in the U.S. are up slightly compared to a year ago, it is still much cheaper than they were during 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.
