President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after vowing an economic boom to a cheering crowd of traders and business leaders.
“We’re with you all the way,” the incoming Republican president said in the NYSE building in lower Manhattan, where he was invited after becoming TIME’s “Person of the Year” for the second time.
Trump was flanked by Vice President-elect JD Vance, incoming first lady Melania Trump, NYSE President Lynn Martin and two of his children, Ivanka and Tiffany, as the bell chimed.
The crowd looking on from the floor included Goldman Sachs‘ David Solomon, Citigroup‘s Jane Fraser, Verizon‘s Hans Vestberg, Brian Cornell of Target and Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman.
At one point, the room broke into a chant of “U-S-A.”
In brief remarks beforehand, Trump promised that his incoming administration would usher in “an economy the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before.”
“We’re going to give tremendous incentive like no other country has,” Trump told the moneyed crowd, including by cutting taxes “very substantially.”
He repeated his vow to slash the corporate tax rate — which was already lowered to 21% during his first term in office — to 15%, but only for companies that choose to manufacture in the U.S.
“You pay 21% if you don’t build here. If you do, we’re going to try and get it to 15%, but you have to build your product, make your product in the USA,” Trump told CNBC’s Jim Cramer after the bell.
Trump also reiterated his plans to boost U.S. oil drilling, promising that doing so would lower inflation.
Hedge fund magnate Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick to replace Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary, told Cramer the next administration will benefit both Wall Street and Main Street.
“I think we’re going to see under President Trump Wall Street can win and Main Street can win, just like we did in Trump 1.0. Everybody can do great,” Bessent said.
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— CNBC’s Alex Harring contributed to this report.
