environment. finland takes the step of a nato membership in order to strengthen not only its own security but also in order to strengthen wider transatlantic security. this is not the way from anybody. like you, mr. president, said, nato is protective. defensive. not a threat to anybody. at the same time, we must not forget that at this very moment, the brave people of ukraine are fighting not only for their own freedom and democracy but our common security. finland together with the eu and the united states stands firmly behind ukraine. so, mr. president, once again, i want to thank you for making history with us. thank you. mr. president, thank you for welcoming the prime minister and me to the white house. the bonds between sweden and the united states are strong and long standing. as you know, swedes first established in your home state of delaware in 1638. we were one of the first countries to recognize united states as an independent nation in 1783. since then, our
to china as they decide whether or not they re going to go after taiwan, which they view as a renegade province and the american officials constantly saying and have been saying for the past few months that if russia thought ukraine was hard, taiwan would be harder for china because it s an island and even better defended. so there s a lot. it s so interesting. you see all the global themes at play interwoven together. he s going to the other side of the war but the ukrainian war will be following him at every stop. thank you so much for the context. rick, thank you for your context, as well. thank you so much for starting us off today. wednesday was the worst trading day for the dow since 2020. it s thursday. things are not looking better today. gas prices hit $4 a gallon in every single state in this country.