Our first question comes from Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms.
He asks about America’s economic growth and Donald Trump’s plans to keep the US market ahead of Europe.
Trump says his “friends in Europe” are complaining about “the time it takes to get things approved.”
He previously required approval for the project in Ireland, which he received in a week, but says approval from the European Union will take “five or six years”.
“I sent people to the EU to see if I could speed it up to get the easy approval that Ireland gave me within a week,” he says.
“I realized it was a problem and I didn’t even bother applying if I had done it.”
As for the United States, Trump says the EU treats the United States “very unfairly, very badly” and has “very great grievances.”
“They have big taxes and VAT taxes, which are significant,” he adds. “They’re essentially not taking our produce or our cars. They put tariffs on whatever they want us to do.”
“I love Europe, I love European countries, but this process is a pain and they treat the United States very unfairly with the taxes they impose.”
