Trump unleashes $4 trillion in stock market gains since election, says Wilbur Ross
President Donald Trump 's fulfilling of campaign promises is responsible for the recent stock market gains, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Monday.
"We're lowering taxes, we're cutting regulations, we're stimulating the workforce, helping to develop the workforce of the future, unleashing our energy resources and redoing our trade agreements," Ross said.
"That's the whole package that President Trump was elected on, and it's the whole package that's driven the stock market to $4 trillion of gains since the election."
Ross appeared on " Squawk Box " at the 2017 SelectUSA Investment Summit outside Washington, featuring senior government officials and global business leaders.
Since the election, the Dow Jones industrial average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) has surged more than 16 percent, the S&P 500 (CME:Index and Options Market: .INX) has gained more than 13 percent, and the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) has risen 18 percent as of Friday's close.
WATCH: The full CNBC interview with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
Critics have argued investors could be getting ahead of themselves, since Trump may not be able to get all the reforms he wants from Congress — even though the House and Senate are controlled by the GOP.
Trump has so far released a one-pager on tax reform, which calls for an overhaul that would cut tax rates but rely on erasing tax breaks and economic growth to end up as "revenue neutral." Despite any roadblocks, Ross said Trump's cutting of regulations has been effective.
"The single most important thing that President Donald Trump has been achieving is the regulatory unwind," Ross said. "The amount of red tape that's been cut out is celebrated by every single CEO that comes to visit with me because that's what has been strangling this country."
On investing, Ross said the industry the United States would like to attract most is technology.
"The high-tech people, the internet people, the artificial intelligence people. Those are where a lot of the future will be," he said.
"We're certainly not going to neglect the historic industries," he added. "But we must look forward to the growth engines of the future."
—The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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