Trump officials give full display of Pro-USA rhetoric at CPAC: 'There’s no one more clever than Americans are'

'We export freedom', says Energy Secretary Rick Perry

Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke address the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center (Getty Images )

Trump officials speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week want attendees to know that America is the greatest country in the world.

“We are enormously clever people,” said Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke while asserting that getting rid adversarial government regulations will drive innovation.

“And allowing us to innovate is what happened in fracking, in energy and batteries,” he added. “There’s no one more clever than Americans are, so our regulatory framework has to reflect that.”

Mr Trump signed an executive order to roll back policies from the Obama administration aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. He has also withdrawn the US from the Paris climate accord – a global agreement to cut carbon emissions to slow the worst effects of climate change. Mr Trump said partaking in the deal would impose “draconian financial and economic burdens” on the US.

Mr Zinke joined Energy Secretary Rick Perry for a panel discussion during CPAC, the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the US. Both officials discussed the push for US “energy dominance”.

“That’s the type of energy policy that President Trump wants to see,” Mr Perry said at the gathering just outside of Washington. “Where we’re using our resources, we’re using American innovation and we’re not sitting there and just saying we’re going to regulate our way into nirvana, because that is a fallacy.”

Mr Perry also boasted that the US is the “No 1 oil-and-gas-producing country in the world.”

In 2016, Russia and Saudi Arabia both produced more oil than the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

“We don’t just export American LNG [liquid natural gas] around the world, we export freedom,“ Mr Perry added. “And you think about what that means around the world, people who are our allies, people who we want to be our allies.”

The conference, which is underway for the second time since Donald Trump became president, has essentially become a show for the Trump administration, with officials touting the benefits of tax cuts passed in December and other advantages of his policies.

During the panel, Mr Zinke applauded Mr Trump for the tax reform package.