President delivers wide-ranging keynote in South Korea, announces upcoming meeting with Chinese President.
Summarization assistance by Claude AI.
Summary
In a triumphant address to business leaders at the APEC CEO Lunch in Gyeongju, South Korea, President Donald Trump declared America’s economic resurgence with $18 trillion in new investment commitments in less than a year, 45 stock market records in nine months, and 1.9 million new American-born workers employed. The President announced he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping the following day to negotiate what he characterized as a mutually beneficial trade deal, while revealing his administration has ended eight wars in eight months using trade leverage?including conflicts between Cambodia-Thailand and India-Pakistan. Trump sharply criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as “incompetent” and “too late,” promising his replacement in “another couple of months,” while touting revolutionary policies including allowing AI companies to build their own power plants, 100% first-year expensing for factories, and a 10-to-1 regulation elimination mandate that his team has exceeded at 30-to-1.
Participants
United States Delegation:
- Donald J. Trump – President of the United States
- Marco Rubio – Secretary of State
- Scott Bessent – Treasury Secretary
- Howard Lutnick – Secretary of Commerce
- Jameson Greer – US Trade Representative Ambassador
- Lee Zeldin – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (mentioned)
South Korea:
- President Lee – President of the Republic of Korea (host)
- Jung-kwan Kim – Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources
Business Leaders: Various APEC CEO Summit attendees, including references to executives from Toyota, NVIDIA (Jensen Huang mentioned by name), and other major corporations
Note: This was a keynote speech, not a press conference, so there were no press questions or Q&A session.
Economic Performance and Investment Announcements
President Trump opened with sweeping declarations about America’s economic transformation, describing the country as “the hottest country in the world” and stating the nation had gone from “very serious trouble” to global inspiration in nine months.
Investment Commitments
The centerpiece of Trump’s economic message was the announcement of over $18 trillion in new investment commitments secured in less than a year. He drew a stark contrast with the previous administration: “The previous administration, in four years, they did less than a trillion, I think much less actually.” He projected this figure could reach “$20 or 21, maybe even $22 trillion” by the end of his first year back in office.
Trump provided a detailed list of major corporate commitments:
- Apple: $600 billion
- NVIDIA: $500 billion
- SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle combined: Over $500 billion
- Micron: $200 billion
- Jira: $200 billion
- IBM: $150 billion
- TSMC: $100 billion
- Pfizer: $70 billion
- Johnson & Johnson: $57 billion
- Genetech: $50 billion
- AstraZeneca: $50 billion
- Amazon: $35 billion
- Hyundai: $26 billion
- Google: $25 billion
- Toyota: $10 billion (announced after meeting in Japan, spread across 6-7 states)
The President emphasized that “100% of all new jobs created in America under my administration have been created by the private sector,” noting that 1.9 million more American-born workers are now employed compared to nine months earlier.
Stock Market and GDP Growth
Trump highlighted that the stock market has set 45 all-time highs in nine months, including one the day before his speech. He reported GDP growth of 3.8% in the second quarter, which he said was “triple, and even quadruple the rate that a lot of people thought we’d be.” Looking ahead, he said the next quarter is “expected to be at about 4% growth,” with even higher projections once new factories come online.
On inflation, Trump claimed victory over what he called “the worst inflation ever that we’ve ever had,” saying it has dropped to 2.7% and will go “a little bit lower than that.” He described this as “almost a perfect number,” noting “you don’t want to have zero. You wanna have like 1% to 2%.”
Manufacturing Resurgence
The President provided specific data points on manufacturing recovery:
- Manufacturing productivity: Rising five times faster than one year ago
- Steel production: Up 155,000 tons per week
- Oil production: Up half a million barrels per day
- Coal mining: Up 2.6 million tons every month
- Food stamp reduction: 600,000 Americans removed in nine months
- Wages: Rising at fastest pace in over 60 years
Trump reported that energy, gasoline, grocery prices, and mortgage rates are all down, though he attributed the interest rate situation to Federal Reserve mismanagement.
Federal Reserve Criticism
In one of the speech’s most pointed passages, President Trump launched a scathing attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump appointed during his first term.
“Despite the fact that we have an incompetent head of the Fed, he’s incompetent. I call him, uh, Jerome too late. He’s always too late. Jerome, too late, Powell. But he’s out of there in another couple of months. We’ll be very happy about that.”
Trump argued that America should have “the lowest interest rates of any country because without us, there are no other countries really,” noting the U.S. has fallen to “number 28” in interest rate rankings, which he called “ridiculous.”
The President criticized what he portrayed as backwards economic thinking: “In the old days when you announced good news, the stock market went up. Now, when you announce good news, the stock market goes down because people think ‘Oh, that’s terrible. You’re doing well. That’s terrible.’ Interest rates will go up.” He pledged to “go back to the way it used to be” where good economic news drives markets higher.
Context: Powell’s term as Fed Chair expires in May 2026. The President’s comments suggest he plans to replace Powell at that time rather than attempting an unprecedented removal before his term ends.
Revolutionary Energy and AI Policy
Perhaps the most innovative policy Trump highlighted was his solution to the electricity demands of artificial intelligence infrastructure?a challenge he characterized as potentially “impossible” for most countries to solve.
Self-Generated Power for AI Facilities
“I came up with a concept when they build this massive plant, sometimes the size of Manhattan, think of that, the size of Manhattan,” Trump explained. “I let them build their own electricity-generating plants with it. So they’re building their own electric. They’re sort of becoming an electric-producing company.”
Under this policy, AI companies can:
- Build their own power generation facilities alongside data centers
- Start operations immediately without waiting for grid connections
- Sell excess electricity back to the grid
- Avoid delays from the “200 years old” electrical grid
Trump emphasized the permitting speed: “We’re giving them very fast permits. We’re no longer having them wait for 10 years, 12 years, 15 years prior to rejection.” He described past situations where projects would wait 15 years only to receive rejection, by which time “their concepts were old and obsolete anyway.”
The President noted these facilities represent unprecedented scale: “These people are spending $50 billion to build a building… I’ve never seen plants this big.”
AI Leadership Claims
Trump repeatedly emphasized America’s dominance in artificial intelligence: “We’re leading everybody in AI, we’re leading every nation in AI by, actually by a lot.” He cited the recent production of NVIDIA and TSMC’s first “state-of-the-art Blackwell chip that was 100% made in the USA.”
Tax Cuts and Regulatory Reform
Tax Policy
In July, Trump signed what he called “the largest tax cuts in American history.” The policy includes:
- 100% expensing for all new factories, plants, and equipment in the first year
- 10-year duration (longer than first-term provisions)
- Corporate rate previously cut from 39% to 21% in first term
- Additional cuts in current term (specific new rate not mentioned)
Trump called the expensing provision “the single most important thing,” explaining: “You can write everything off in the first year.”
Regulatory Elimination
The President described an executive order requiring 10 old regulations eliminated for every 1 new regulation added. He reported his team has exceeded this target: “Already we’re exceeding that limit, reaching closer to 30 to 1.”
“We’re sort of cleaning up the books, ’cause many of these regulations are obsolete. They don’t belong. And some were so horrible, they were obsolete, but they really stopped projects from being built.”
Permitting Reform
Trump announced that energy and mining project approvals, which previously took decades, now take “generally speaking, less than 28 days.” He highlighted this as worth “billions and billions of dollars to industry,” noting companies previously “spent more money on trying to get something approved than you do in building the plant itself.”
Anecdote: Louisiana LNG Plants
To illustrate the transformation, Trump recounted the story of two massive LNG plants in Louisiana:
“One was 15 years, one was 16 or 17 years, and they were then told, ‘Forget it, we’re not gonna get it approved.’ So I came into government, I heard about it… The one plant that was in for almost 15 years, I got it approved in one day. One day. In fact, when we called the people to say that they got approved, they didn’t know what the hell we were talking about. They said, ‘You got it approved?’ We sort of gave up on it.”
The second plant took “one week” to approve. Trump noted both facilities are now “setting records” in LNG production.
Government Efficiency
The President emphasized his administration’s reduction in federal workforce and spending:
- 100,000 bureaucrats have left the federal payroll since January
- Government spending down 2.5% this quarter compared to one year ago
- Zero government job creation – all 1.9 million new jobs from private sector
“It’s easy to create government jobs. I could say add a lot of people to your payrolls. I can fake up the numbers if I want, but that’s no way, that’s not the way you build a great country,” Trump explained, taking a swipe at “the Biden administration, under, uh, Barack Hussein Obama.”
Trade Policy and Reciprocal Tariffs
The Reciprocity Principle
Trump described his trade philosophy as revolutionary, noting he first presented these ideas at APEC eight years earlier. “For the first time, I laid out the principle that economic security is national security,” he said, arguing the global trading system “had been exploited by countries that broke the rules at the expense of countries that followed the rules to a T.”
On this trip, the President signed “groundbreaking agreements with Malaysia, Cambodia, Japan,” with the South Korea deal to be “finalized very soon, like moments or very shortly thereafter.”
Tariff Impact Projections
Trump announced that tariffs are “now projected to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years. And I think actually much more than that.”
He positioned tariffs as optional: “For any company that does not wish to pay the tariff, I say, ‘You know, you could build your factory in America. If you build your factory in America, there is zero, zero tariffs.’”
Strategic Industries Focus
The President highlighted new partnerships in “strategically important industries”:
- Shipbuilding (working with South Korea to revive American industry)
- Energy
- Semiconductors
- Critical minerals
- Pharmaceuticals (“We learned that during COVID. We had to rely on other countries”)
- Nuclear technology
- Quantum computing
- Artificial intelligence
Shipbuilding Partnership with South Korea
Trump devoted significant attention to reviving American shipbuilding with South Korean assistance:
“We were the number one in the world during World War II. We produced a ship a day, can you believe it? Tankers and freighters… And today, we’re not really building ships.”
He highlighted South Korean investment in the Philadelphia Shipyard: “Some of the people in this room, they bought the Philadelphia Shipyard. I think it’s gonna be one of the most successful yards in the world, anywhere in the world.”
Trump blamed previous administrations: “Through bad management or bad thinking by people that were prior to me… they allowed the shipbuilding industry to go away essentially in our country. We’re gonna bring it back very, very powerfully.”
Coal Rebranding
In a revealing aside about messaging strategy, Trump explained his administration’s language rules around coal:
“What you can do with coal today is incredible. So I call it clean, beautiful. I don’t use the word coal, I say, ’cause it’s got a little bit of a problem, public relations-wise, the word. So we call it clean, beautiful. My administration’s not allowed to use the word coal. They have to say clean, beautiful coal. We’ve given it a new name. It’s a three-name deal.”
Military Capabilities
Trump asserted American military supremacy, particularly in submarine technology:
“We’re number one in military… In submarines, nuclear submarines. We are so far advanced that by perhaps 20, 25 years, we’re 25 years ahead of any competition.”
He noted South Korea is “buying a lot of our weapons. We make the best. We have the planes and just about everything other than ships. And we’ll be there very shortly with ships too.”
Meeting with Xi Jinping Announcement
In a major revelation, President Trump announced he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping the following day:
“President Xi of China’s coming tomorrow here and we’re going to be, I hope, making a deal. I think we’re gonna have a deal. I think it’ll be a good deal for both, and that’s really a great result. You know, that’s better than fighting and going through all sorts of problems and, you know, no reason for it. I think it’s gonna be a great deal for both.”
Trump acknowledged global interest: “A lot of people are interested. They’re also interested in what we are doing, but they’re interested in that. I can tell you a lot, the world is watching, and I think we’ll have something that’s very exciting for everybody. And that’s also good for South Korea. That’s good for, it’s good for all nations.”
Context: This meeting would be the first between the two leaders since Trump returned to office and comes amid ongoing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Peace Negotiations: Using Trade as Leverage
Perhaps the most striking portion of Trump’s speech was his claim to have ended eight wars in eight months by using trade negotiations as leverage?a strategy he illustrated with detailed examples.
Cambodia-Thailand Conflict
Trump described discovering a border war while negotiating trade deals:
“I see Cambodia, Thailand… and I read a front page story about the fact that there were thousands of dead people along the border, and they fought for a long time. And I said, ‘Wait a minute, we’re making deals? And they’re starting a war?’”
His intervention was direct: “I said, ‘Listen, you want a trade deal? We’re not gonna make a deal with you if you’re gonna be in war.’”
After calls to both nations over two days, with Malaysia serving as mediator, Trump signed the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords on Sunday, which he said ended “forever the war between Cambodia and Thailand.” He noted they had “a tempestuous relationship for 500 years.”
“We saved, you know, probably millions of lives,” Trump said, describing the signing: “The two people came in. They were like best friends. It was a beautiful thing to see.”
India-Pakistan Crisis
Trump recounted intervening in an escalating conflict between two nuclear powers:
“So I’m doing a trade deal with India… I’m reading that seven planes were shot down. They’re going at it and they’re really starting to go, and it’s a big thing. These are two nuclear nations and they’re really going at it.”
He called Prime Minister Modi of India: “We can’t make a trade deal with you… You’re starting a war with Pakistan, we’re not gonna do it.” He made a similar call to Pakistan’s leadership.
Trump expressed surprise at Modi’s response: “Prime Minister Modi is the nicest-looking guy… and he looks like you’d like to have your father. Like he’s a killer. He’s tough… ‘No, we will fight.’ I said, ‘Whoa, is this is the same man that I know?’”
After threatening 250% tariffs on both nations, “within 48 hours, we had no war, no people killed.”
Other Conflicts Resolved
- Azerbaijan conflict: 38-year war ended, with Putin reportedly telling Trump “It’s amazing. We couldn’t get that war stopped. Millions of people killed.”
- Middle East: Achieved peace after “3,000 years” of conflict – “they never had peace”
- Congo-Rwanda: “Much smaller to do with trade, more to do with common sense. They were fighting for years, 10 million people were dead”
Trump listed eight total conflicts resolved, noting “the only one I didn’t do is Russia, Ukraine. But that’ll get done too.”
Russia-Ukraine Situation
On the one major conflict remaining unresolved, Trump expressed confidence but acknowledged difficulty:
“I thought that was gonna be an easy one because of my relationship with President Putin. He turned out to be a little different, but I think it’ll get done. It would’ve never started if I were president.”
He contrasted this with his Middle East achievement: “Who would’ve thought we created peace in the Middle East but didn’t get Russia and Ukraine? ‘Cause peace in the Middle East was undoable.”
Election Victory Recap
Trump provided detailed numbers from his 2024 election victory:
- Won all seven swing states
- Won popular vote “by millions”
- Electoral College victory by “tremendous amount”
- County results: 2,750 counties to 525
“We won in a landslide,” Trump declared, adding: “We had these great polls going in. I said, ‘Don’t believe the polls pretend we’re one point down. Always assume we’re one point down and everybody voted.’”
He referenced the campaign’s “too big to rig” strategy: “We didn’t want any rigging.”
Reflecting on the rapid transition, Trump noted: “One year ago, it’s not long ago, I was campaigning… And yet, one year ago… I was campaigning. We didn’t win. We were campaigning, and then we had the election and we had a great election.”
Key Administration Officials Praised
- Marco Rubio (Secretary of State): “Great job he’s done”
- Scott Bessent (Treasury Secretary): “Understands the markets maybe better than anybody”
- Howard Lutnick (Commerce Secretary): “Pretty good” negotiator
- Jameson Greer (Trade Representative): “Fantastic person”
- Lee Zeldin (EPA): “Gets the right result quickly and he makes sure that people do the right thing”
- Jung-kwan Kim (South Korea Trade Minister): “Incredible man actually. My people say he is very tough, however. We wish we had somebody of a little bit lesser caliber”
Notable Rhetorical Moments
On Deal-Making Philosophy
“I’ve heard that all the time and I never really believed it, I’ll be honest. I said, ‘If you make a great deal.’ The best deals are deals that work for everybody. Especially when you’re talking about nations… When you’re talking about nations, it’s a little bit different than you’re doing a business deal and you want to just rip their hearts out, right? These guys know what I mean. They’ve ripped out so many hearts. But when you have nations, it’s a little bit different.”
On American Exceptionalism
“Without us, there are no other countries really. I mean, the whole thing falls apart.”
On Success Strategy
“True success comes from having the confidence and the courage to prove the doubters wrong. And oftentimes you’ll go the opposite way of almost everybody, and you’ll be the one that’s right and the others will be the one that’s wrong and that’s where you have your greatest successes.”
On Critics
“The only critics are people that took advantage of us for many years and now they’re not able to do that.”
Geographic Vision
Trump concluded with an expansive geographic litany connecting American and Asian cities:
“From the rolling hills of San Francisco to the gleaming streets of Seoul, from the bustling factories of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, to the bright lights of Tokyo, from Pittsburgh to Palawan, from Boston to Bangkok, from Detroit to Da Nang, and from Cleveland to right here in Gyeongju… We’re strengthening old friendships, forging new bonds, building new factories, pioneering new industries.”
He stumbled slightly on the pronunciation of Gyeongju, asking the audience “Did I do good with that one? Did I do okay? Gyeongju. A good beautiful place by the way.”
Closing Message
Trump ended with a unifying vision: “Together we will build together, we will trade together, we will prosper together, we will thrive together and above all, we will win, win, win together like never before. We’re gonna have an incredible relationship together for generations to come.”
“God bless you, God bless the nations of this great region and God bless America. Thank you very much everybody.”
Analysis and Context
Significance of Investment Numbers
The $18 trillion investment figure, if accurate, would represent an unprecedented influx of capital commitments. However, these are commitments and pledges rather than completed investments, and timelines span multiple years. Many announcements (like Apple’s $600 billion) likely include both domestic reinvestment and new spending spread over extended periods.
Federal Reserve Independence
Trump’s direct criticism of the Fed Chair and promise to replace him raises questions about central bank independence, a cornerstone of U.S. monetary policy since the Federal Reserve’s creation in 1913. Markets typically react negatively to political interference signals in monetary policy.
Trade-for-Peace Strategy
Trump’s use of trade negotiations as leverage for peace talks represents an unorthodox diplomatic approach. While the strategy claimed success in multiple conflicts, the durability of these agreements and the accuracy of casualty figures (particularly “millions” of deaths in some conflicts) would require independent verification.
China Meeting Stakes
The announced Xi Jinping meeting carries enormous implications for global trade, with the U.S.-China economic relationship affecting supply chains, technology development, and financial markets worldwide.
Regulatory and Permitting Claims
The assertion of 28-day permitting for major energy projects represents a dramatic shift if implemented across federal agencies. Environmental and safety advocates have historically argued that thorough review processes, while sometimes lengthy, protect public health and natural resources.
MLA Citation:
Trump, Donald J. “Donald Trump Delivers the Keynote at the APEC CEO Lunch in South Korea – October 29, 2025.” Factbase, 29 Oct. 2025, Gyeongju, South Korea. Transcript.