Nervous rex: the Davos elite brace for Trump and his dinosaur diplomacy | Donald Trump
“No diplomacy with Donald Trump: He’s a T rex. You mate with him, or he’ll eat you.”
Discussions at the World Economic Forum’s annual meetings atop the Swiss Alps have generally been exceedingly polite, but as this year’s meeting got underway in Davos on Tuesday, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, offered this blunt advice about dealing with the week’s star speaker.
The U.S. president had yet to arrive, but throughout the blond wooden convention center, the hottest topic among the global business and policy elite — on and off the conference stages — was Trump’s relentless attack on his European allies, threatening them with punitive tariffs if they didn’t allow him to annex Greenland.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent started the day by urging US allies to remain calm and accusing them of “hysteria” in their response to the president’s comments. “I urge everyone here to sit back, take a deep breath and let things happen.”
A number of European leaders who addressed delegates on Tuesday appeared reluctant to wait and see what T rex intends to do to them when he arrives to deliver his speech on Wednesday afternoon.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that recent chaotic events underlined the need for, in her words, “a new form of European independence” and warned that it would be a mistake to expect a return to normal. “Nostalgia will not bring back the old order,” he said.
French prime minister Emmanuel Macron also sought to stimulate Europe’s reaction to Trump by issuing a warning about the risks of “new imperialism or neo-colonialism.”
Macron, who wore mirrored aviation sunglasses due to his eye condition, made a speech that included criticism and some sarcasm. “It’s great to be here and it’s a time of peace, stability and predictability,” he said amid laughter.
He went on to warn of, in his words, “a shift towards autocracy versus democracy… towards a world without rules, where international law is trampled, single law appears strongest, and imperial ambitions resurface.”
The US president suggested that unless he backs down on the Greenland threat, Europe may be forced to use its anti-coercive tool known as the “trade bazooka”, which imposes potentially sweeping sanctions and tariffs. “Can you imagine? This is crazy.”
Before addressing the packed congress hall, Macron lined up in the front row and shook hands with European leaders, including von der Leyen.
“Let’s not accept the global order determined by those who claim to have a bigger voice and the biggest teeth,” he said.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who partially reversed his party’s electoral chances with his “elbow raising” stance against the US president, also gave an opening speech that sounded the death knell of the rules-based global order.
Peppering his speech with references from sources as diverse as Thucydides and former Czech leader Václav Havel, Carney warned: “There is a strong tendency for countries to reach agreement. To harmonize. To avoid trouble. To hope that harmony will buy security, but it won’t.” Echoing Newsom’s warning, he added: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Just as Carney was speaking, another member of the large US delegation, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was making a combative statement about the US position in a panel discussion in another Davos conference room.
“We’re here to make a very clear point: Globalization has failed the West and the United States. It’s a failed policy. What the West stands for is exporting, offshoring, finding the cheapest labor in the world, and the world is a better place for it,” he said. “The truth is, he left America behind. He left American workers behind.”
Lutnick suggested that the United States would instead look out for its own interests and called on other countries to do the same. “When America shines, the world shines,” he insisted, predicting that the “mess” in Greenland would eventually be resolved through dialogue rather than a trade war, as he called it.
Some analysts have suggested that Trump will try to impress his audience rather than create new drama when he addresses Davos on Wednesday. But with both sides of the global divide clearly emerging, the stage is being set for T rex to make a grand entrance.
