 "From fanboy Milei to sceptical Chinh, Davos economic forum shows Trump is resetting the world order")
President Donald Trump will not be present in person at the World Economic Forum in Davos but that has not diminished his prominence at the event as discussions about him dominate the conversations.
Trump will deliver a video address virtually and the focus will be on his potential impact.
According to a Bloomberg report, supporters like Argentina President Javier Milei are expressing their enthusiasm, while Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is looking to the new US president with optimism.
In contrast, targets of Trump’s policies, such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are maintaining a low profile, added the report.
In the Swiss mountain resort, it seems there is hardly a conversation that doesn’t include an evaluation of the new president’s plans and their implications.
“If you fail to understand the playing field that Trump is playing on, it will be hard to understand his vision,” Bloomberg quoted Milei as saying to its Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait on Wednesday.
“The guidelines he is putting forward will create a much better world,” added Milei.
The first foreign leader to meet Trump after his election victory, Milei believes there is no contradiction between his free-trade views and Trump’s love for tariffs.
“It’s not that he is a protectionist, but he knows the role the US has in the world and consequently its commercial policy is part of its geopolitical strategy,” Milei was quoted as saying.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOther leaders weren’t as openly enthusiastic, but they indicated their willingness to adhere to Trump’s rules. Some were more playful.
“Listen to what President Trump has to say and act accordingly,” Bloomberg quoted Finnish President Alexander Stubb as saying in an interview. “A country like Finland will certainly do that,” he added.
“If playing golf can help bring benefits to my country and my people, then I can play golf all day long,” said Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, drawing chuckles from the audience.
Much has changed in a year. Last January, when Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua asked European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde about Trump’s potential return to the Oval Office, she joked she needed another cup of coffee before answering.
The audience laughed then, but it’s a different story now.
This week, a chorus of euro area leaders set aside past criticisms and embraced a more conciliatory tone.
“We have to engage in a constructive approach in our relations with the new administration,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Bloomberg TV.
According to the Bloomberg report, last year, Mark Rutte attended the Davos gathering as Dutch prime minister, positioning himself for his current role as Nato Secretary General. He praised Trump for urging Europeans to increase defence spending, a view that was somewhat controversial at the time but is now widely accepted, added the report.
“In the end that Trump is starting the debate is good and he will always do it in his own way,” Rutte was quoted as saying on Thursday.
“But that’s OK because that makes it possible for you to come to an agreement,” he added.
The leader of one of the alliance’s newest members, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, chose his words carefully.
“Politics is run in a different way in the United States compared to European countries,” he told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.
Even leaders who had been targeted by Elon Musk — whose significant financial and social media backing for Trump secured him a place in the president’s inner circle — sought to remain diplomatic.
Scholz addressed a question about Musk’s growing support for the far right in Germany without naming the world’s richest man, saying, “We have the freedom of speech in Europe — and in Germany, everyone can say what he wants even if he is a billionaire.”
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves laughed off Musk’s “trolling,” even as center-left governments such as hers are on the backfoot with Trump and trying to figure out whether to ignore or engage with Musk.
Attendees this week wondered whether Trump, who in 2018 landed in Davos by helicopter, might just surprise them in person. Poland’s outgoing president, Andrzej Duda, perked up at the prospect.
Trump “always thinks out of the box,” Bloomberg Television quoted Duda as saying.
China was keeping a fairly low profile, contrasting with the more overt showiness of the Gulf countries along the promenade.
“We don’t like to mix relationships when it comes to these issues,” Bloomberg quoted Qatari Finance Minister Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari as saying when asked about US-China relations, making clear there was no picking of sides.
“I understand the US motives and moves but I think tariffs is a two-sided weapon,” Al-Kuwari added.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy needs arms of a different kind for his war against Russia’s invasion. When it came to the prospect of a peacekeeping force if a truce were ever reached, he was blunt about Europe’s limitations.
“It can’t be without the United States,” he told Bloomberg in an interview.
“Even if some European friends think it can be, no it can’t be. Nobody will risk without the United States,” he added.
With inputs from agencies
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