New Delhi/Davos, Jan 21 (IANS): At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed the "perennial prophets of doom" while bragging about the US economic boom under his leadership.
Taking an oblique dig at 17-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg who was sitting among the audience, Trump in his keynote address said, "This is a time for optimism, and we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of apocalypse... they predicted overpopulation and the end of oil. We will never let radical socialists destroy our economy."
The US, however, will join the one trillion trees initiative, he said. Trump also pointed out that the US now has the cleanest drinking water in the last 40 years.
Environment is the top agenda at the annual summit of WEF at the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Just ahead of Trump's speech, the WEF played a video on climate change, refugees and Middle East peace - all issues on which the US President has courted several controversies.
In his keynote address, however, the US President spent most of his time talking about how he had turned around the economy at home. The US, he said, "is enjoying an economic boom, the likes of which has never been seen before, and America is winning like never before. Concluding the two biggest ever trade deals, prosperity has come thundering back with 7 million new jobs...we are creating the most inclusive economy ever to exist."
Facing an impeachment trial over allegations of seeking Ukrainian influence in the 2020 presidential election back home, the US President bragged, "This is a blue collar boom, the American dream is back bigger, better and stronger than ever before. Women now comprised a majority of the US workforce and workers' wages are rising more than managers." 12,000 new factories have opened and big businesses have come back to the US, he added.
Trump also boasted about US trade with China under new negotiated terms and hoped to have a mutually beneficial deal with the UK under its recently-elected Prime Minister Boris Johnson.