Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest man and one of the world’s wealthiest, addressed a range of topics at his annual conference on Monday. Despite his extensive holdings in sectors ranging from communications and construction to an iconic Mexican restaurant and retail chain, much of the questioning centered — perhaps unsurprisingly — on U.S. President Donald Trump.
Here are some highlights of Slim’s address at the headquarters of one of his companies in Mexico City.
Slim on Trump’s presidency
“There’s a lot to do. He only has four years,” Slim said about Trump’s second term.
Slim met Trump during his first term while negotiating the free trade agreement, describing him then as a “negotiator, not a terminator.” Now, weeks into Trump’s second term, Slim only commented that the situation Trump faces is complicated.
“What the U.S. has to do is regain global leadership,” he said.
“It would be interesting if he did a sort of double play, let’s say on one side reduce the costs of certain things and on the other channel it toward investment.”
On tariffs
Slim said bluntly that tariffs don’t work. “They increase inflation … the interest rate doesn’t go down … tariffs don’t solve problems.”
He said Trump’s tariff threats are simply a negotiating tool.
Slim said the 25% tariffs announced Monday by Trump on all steel and aluminum products wouldn’t have much impact on Mexico, because some Mexican steel producers also have U.S. operations.
Moreover, he said a general tariff on Mexican imports is unlikely, because Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Trump are following through on an agreement that would pause tariffs in exchange for bolstering border security.
Slim on US manufacturing
“The United States’ situation isn’t good … The United States stopped producing things,” Slim said, noting that it outsourced a lot of production abroad simply because it was cheaper.
“The United States has to see what things it can produce and what it can’t,” he said, citing the semiconductor industry’s resurgence as a prime example of the need for domestic manufacturing.
Slim on US companies
Trump has proposed reducing corporate taxes as a means of attracting businesses back to the United States, but Slim disagrees, arguing that this tactic alone will not suffice.
“You have to speak with them and remind them that their country is the United States and encourage them to bring their overseas operations home,” Slim said.
He rejected the idea that the world’s largest fortunes should be taxed, as some propose, because then those fortunes would go elsewhere. “The trick is that people work,” he said. Creating jobs, not just giving donations.
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On Elon Musk’s DOGE
Slim said he did not meet tech billionaire Elon Musk at Trump’s inauguration, but although he agrees with some of his ideas, he would not invest with him because his bets are very risky.
While Slim agrees the U.S. needs to cut wasteful spending, he thinks this is something that should be done with care, not shutting down things in one swipe like “when he reduced 80% of Twitter staff.”
On securing the US-Mexico border
Slim said he advocates for more security presence on the border from both the United States and Mexico.
“Double the guard here so that nothing gets out, and there so that nothing comes in.” Over in the U.S., he said, they keep the drugs and the money and here, the weapons and the violence.
