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Live Briefing

Trump, in Davos Speech, Sticks to Script as He Declares America Open for Business

• President Trump broke with precedent by delivering a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, saying that “America first is not America alone.”

• Mr. Trump said earlier Friday that a New York Times report that he had ordered the firing of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, was “fake news.”

• The president said separately that he thought he could persuade hard-liners in his party to accept a proposed immigration compromise.

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Speaking for the first time at the World Economic Forum, President Trump said that the world was witnessing the resurgence of a strong, prosperous United States that is competitive once again.CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

1. Mr. Trump wants to be known as a businessman-president. His speech to one of the world’s most global meetings was almost entirely about how he is making the United States more attractive to investors. “America is open for business, and we are competitive once again,” he said.

“Historically I guess there’s never really been a businessman or business person elected president,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s always been a general or a politician.”

2. The president made barely any mention of geopolitics, or major international issues like climate change. China was not noted at all. Nor was India, nor Iran nor even Europe.

Mr. Trump did, however, soften some of his nationalist rhetoric. He said he would “always put America first, just as the leaders of other countries should put their countries first.”

“But America first does not mean America alone,” he continued. “When the United States grows, so does the world.”

3. Mr. Trump predicted the recently passed tax cuts — including a reduction in the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent — would result in billions of dollars in new investments and jobs.

The actual impact remains unclear. But the president claimed that several business leaders had made such promises to him in private meetings.

4. The president can stick to the script when he wants to. He read his entire speech carefully from a Teleprompter and did not go off-message — a tendency that has gotten him into trouble in the past.

Still, he could not resist referring to “fake news” outlets in a brief question-and-answer session after his speech.

“It wasn’t until I became a politician that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious, and how fake the press can be,” he said.

5. There is at least one new way for companies to curry favor with Mr. Trump: giving their workers payouts related to the tax cut.

The cascade of bonuses, the president said, had been “like a big, beautiful waterfall.”

Of note: One company he specifically mentioned was the telecommunications giant AT&T, which is locked in a legal battle to get approval of its merger with Time Warner. —REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN

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When asked if he tried to fire the special counsel Robert Mueller, President Trump called it “fake news.” The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump ordered the firing of Mr. Mueller in June.CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

Speakers at the World Economic Forum usually celebrate globalization, praise diversity and decry climate change. So Friday’s speech by President Trump, who has at times voiced skepticism on all three stances, was warily awaited by the assembled business and government leaders.

They need not have worried.

Sounding more like the businessman he used to be than the outspoken populist he has become, Mr. Trump delivered a broad endorsement of recent Republican tax legislation. He said he favored free trade, provided that abusive trade practices by other countries were curbed. And he emphasized the importance of raising the prosperity of all Americans, particularly mentioning low unemployment among African-Americans.

But almost completely missing from his remarks was the sometimes confrontational nationalism of his election campaign and many of his tweets.

Mr. Trump instead portrayed the United States and other nations as having common interests.

He said that the United States was “lifting up forgotten communities,” and was fulfilling the dreams of Americans for “a great job, a safe home and a better life for their children.”

The president also took credit for rising share prices: “The stock market is smashing one record after another.”

Mr. Trump took visible delight in talking about companies that have already responded by offering bonuses to their workers. The rapidity with which companies acted, Mr. Trump said, was “something we didn’t anticipate.”

But discerning the future direction of American economic policy, and particularly American trade policy, was hard to do from Friday’s speech, as Mr. Trump instead appeared to be providing a broad vision of leadership. “I think I’ve been a cheerleader for our country,” he said. —KEITH BRADSHER

• For more on the intersection of business and policy at Davos, check out the DealBook Briefing.

“This was Donald Trump’s Sinatra global leadership moment. He was able to say, ‘I came to Davos, and I did it my way.’ ”

— Carlos Pascual, a former United States ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine who is now a senior vice president at IHS Markit.

“It was impossible to guess what direction he will take.”

— Brian Mikkelsen, Denmark’s minister of industry, business and financial affairs, on what trade policy Mr. Trump would pursue in the coming months.

During his speech, President Trump zeroed in on a recent announcement by Apple that it would bring the bulk of its foreign earnings back to the United States under a lower tax rate passed as part of the recent tax reform. Apple had said it estimated it would have a $350 billion impact on the American economy over the next five years.

How much of that goes beyond what Apple would have spent anyway?

The technology company’s current pace of spending in the United States is $55 billion for 2018, so it was already on track to spend $275 billion over the next five years. After a $38 billion tax payment for repatriating money is subtracted, that leaves its new investment at roughly $37 billion over the next five years.

How much of that, if any, would go toward manufacturing was unclear. Apple has said it plans to open a new domestic campus that, at least initially, will house technical support for customers. More than $10 billion of planned capital expenditures will go toward American data centers. More than 20,000 new jobs will be spread across facilities old and new. —TIFFANY HSU

Upon arrival at the Congress Center in Davos, President Trump was greeted by a scrum of the forum’s participants snapping cellphone photos and a large group of reporters asking why he had ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, as The New York Times reported.

“Fake news, folks,” Mr. Trump replied. “Fake news. A typical New York Times fake story.” —ELISABETH BUMILLER

While he is meeting with world leaders, President Trump is still partly focused on negotiations back home over immigration, asserting in an interview that he thought he could win over hard-liners in his party to a compromise deal.

He mentioned, in particular, Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, David Perdue of Georgia and John Cornyn of Texas, and Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia. “These are people that really have shifted a lot,” he told CNBC. “They’ve really shifted a lot and I think they’re willing to shift more, and so am I.” —PETER BAKER

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Several world leaders highlighted integration and cooperation as vital for the global economy ahead of President Trump’s arrival at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.CreditCredit...Tom Brenner/The New York Times

The president expressed regret for sharing anti-Muslim videos originally posted by an ultranationalist fringe group in Britain, but he made no apology on Friday for calling African nations “shithole countries,” or some variant of that phrase.

Mr. Trump said that when he retweeted the videos, which portrayed Muslims as violent attackers, he knew nothing about Britain First, the group that had originally posted them.

“If you are telling me they’re horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologize, if you’d like me to do that,” Mr. Trump told Piers Morgan of the British broadcaster ITV, in an interview scheduled to air on Sunday.

The rare expression of repentance — one of Mr. Trump’s rules is “never apologize” — came as the president sought to patch up a badly strained relationship with Britain.

But Mr. Trump’s contrition and efforts at fence-mending went only so far: He ignored reporters’ questions on Friday about his derogatory remarks about African countries this month.

During a meeting with lawmakers, the president had said he thought the United States should accept more immigrants from countries like Norway, rather than Haiti or “shithole countries” in Africa, according to multiple reports. Mr. Trump has disputed the reports and some have suggested that he actually said “shithouse countries.”

After the remark was made public, Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda and chairman of the African Union, issued a statement demanding a retraction and “an apology to not only the Africans but to all people of African descent around the globe.”

Mr. Trump and Mr. Kagame met on Friday, shortly before Mr. Trump’s scheduled address to the World Economic Forum.

Mr. Kagame said that he had “good discussions” with Mr. Trump about the economy and trade, and he thanked Mr. Trump for his support. But the Rwandan leader made no mention of the furor over the comments. —PETER BAKER

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