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wattWe’re going to Davos – it’s going to be a fun trip,” Donald Trump told reporters before Delayed boarding of Air Force One flight Attend the annual World Economic Forum.
Hours later, the US president began attacking his European and NATO allies In a typically combative speech World leaders and CEOs from Switzerland.
He threatened to impose tariffs on French drug prices and said that Denmark fell to Nazi Germany within six hours and that without the United States, everyone in the room would “speak German…and maybe a little Japanese.”
trump brand Canadian leadership ‘ungrateful’Europe “changed beyond recognition” and Many times confused between Iceland and Greenland while still vowing to do the latter for “security reasons.”
then came full exposure threat To those who objected to his territorial ambitions for Denmark: “You can say yes and we will be very grateful. Or you can say no and we will remember.”
Since Trump first came to power a decade ago, presidents and prime ministers alike have struggled to understand how best to navigate his behavior, and Davos is no exception.
European leaders in particular have been accused of trying too hard to please him, failing to push back, and adopting one attitude in public and another in private.
Trump’s whirlwind tour of global political and business leaders sees the president’s arrival Close deals and make important concessions in one fell swoop And then publicly humiliated his so-called allies.
But after a year of aggressive foreign policy that saw the United States force regime change in Venezuela and launch a damaging trade war using widespread tariffs, there is a sense that some countries’ patience is finally running thin.
Some world leaders, such as British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (notably absent from the event), have tried to create Known as the “Trump Whisperer” To keep him on side.
Former NATO Secretary General and Danish President Anders Fogh Rasmussen said greenland crisis Any efforts to cater to Trump have proven pointless.
“The era of flattery is over,” he told reporters in Davos. “This is not going to work. The fact is that Trump only respects force and strength. And unity. That’s what Europe should show now.”
Critics such as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron attacked Trump’s New World Order in keynote speeches, but neither dared to name Trump directly.
“We prefer respect to bullies; we prefer science to conspiracy; we prefer the rule of law to brutality,” Macron said on Sport. Eye-catching aviator sunglasses.
But Trump has publicly acknowledged that public rhetoric does not always match private reality.
At a press conference ahead of the trip, the president said he personally got on well with Macron and Starmer but “they can get a little rowdy when I’m not here”.
“They were very good to me when I was there,” he noted, before saying that both leaders needed to “get their countries in order” and that Macron would not be in power for long anyway, with his term ending next year.
Before his plane landed in Switzerland, Trump went one step further: shared a personal text message he received from the French president on his Truth social platform.
“My friend,” one message from Macron began. “We are totally aligned on Syria. We can do great things on Iran. I don’t understand what you are doing on Greenland. Let’s try to build great things:
“1) I can schedule a G7 meeting in Paris on Thursday afternoon after Davos. I can invite the Ukrainians, the Danes, the Syrians and the Russians on the margins. 2) Let’s have dinner together in Paris on Thursday and then you go back to the United States. Emanuel.”
Trump also shared a message from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who often lavishes praise on the president and once infamously called him “Dad.”
His text: “Mr. President, Dear Donald – what you accomplished today in Syria is incredible. I will use my media event in Davos to highlight the work you are doing there, in Gaza and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can’t wait to meet you. Yours, Mark.”
At first, Rutte’s flattery seemed successful, at least on the thorny issue of Greenland. Hours after speech, Trump reverses course and abandons plan Tariffs imposed on group of U.S. allies The country opposed his push to acquire the territory after what the president called a “very productive” meeting with the NATO secretary-general.
Rutte dodged a question at the forum about whether he was a true “Trump whisperer” with a unique ability to guide the president, arguing that there was no need for a special strategy when Trump was already “doing the right thing” in NATO and the Arctic.
But it wasn’t long before tensions resurfaced. In his speech, Trump questioned whether NATO would come save america if needed.
Rutte sat in front of the world’s cameras on Wednesday night and chose a moment to tell Trump that Europe would absolutely do this and had done so before in Afghanistan.
“For every two Americans who pay the ultimate price, there’s one soldier from another NATO country who doesn’t make it home to his family — from the Netherlands, from Denmark, especially from other countries,” he said, as Trump sat quietly and nodded.
Trump added fuel to the fire during an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Questioned the dedication of European troops in the war and sparked widespread backlash.
“I always say, if we need them, will they be there? That’s really the ultimate test, but I’m not sure about that,” he said. “We never needed them. They would say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed behind, away from the front lines.”
For California Governor and potential presidential candidate Gavin Newsom, who is also in Davos this week, the only response to what he calls the “Don Rule” is to fight back.
After arriving in Switzerland, Newsom found himself Imploring European leaders to stand up for themselves and take a tougher stance against Trump.
“People are rolling over. I should be bringing a bunch of knee pads for world leaders,” the Democrat told reporters. “This is so sad.
“The Europeans should decide for themselves what to do, but the one thing they can’t do is what they’ve been doing. They’ve been fooled. This guy [Trump] It’s treating people like fools. “
Georg Riekeles, deputy director of the European Policy Center, agreed that Europe had “long… clung to a comforting belief” that it should avoid counterattacks because its security depended on Washington.
“This argument is wrong,” he wrote in the book The Guardian. “Moreover, it is strategically corrosive. In a world of overt coercion, appeasement and restraint do not bring stability. They bring further pressure.
“Trade conflicts, such as coercive bargaining and military deterrence, are largely determined by escalating dominance—the ability to convince the other side that you are more willing and able to withstand pressure.
“This dominance depends not just on size and influence, but also on unity and determination. On both counts, Europe has recently failed.”
A visibly frustrated Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted the poor performance of European leaders, In a scathing speech on Thursday.
“Europe has not taken the lead in defending freedom around the world, especially as America’s focus has shifted elsewhere,” the Ukrainian president said shortly after meeting Trump. “Europe seems to have lost its way when it comes to trying to persuade the president of the United States to make changes.”
“But he won’t change. President Trump loves himself. He says he loves Europe, but he won’t listen to Europe like this.”