The World Economic Forum convened as usual this year in Davos. But on the same day it began, Donald Trump returned to power, meaning it did not feel like business as usual at one of the main events in the annual calendar of the liberal-leaning elite.
The official theme of the Swiss Alps for the four-day WEF meeting from 20 January was “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”. Nonetheless, it was a different topic that dominated: Trumponomics 2.0, the protectionist policies looming once again over world trade, with the return of a president of the United States famed for using tariffs as weapons in trade wars, and his determination to turn back to traditional energy sources.
Trump is also setting out once again to bring jobs back to the US for companies selling into its home market, alongside moves to preserve his country’s industrial and technological edge against rising competition, especially from China.
The returning president’s economic agenda reverberated across the meetings held in the winter resort. The highlight of the event occurred when Trump appeared himself via a video link from Washington, telling delegates: “The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we're going to use it. Not only will this reduce the cost of virtually all goods and services, it will make the United States a manufacturing superpower and the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto.”
“If you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff— differing amounts, but a tariff which will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our Treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt’’.
Emperor Trump’s generals
The reaction was stark. Lloyd Blankfein, the former longtime chief executive of the global investment bank Goldman Sachs, was quoted by the Bloomberg news agency drawing a historical parallel on Trump’s return for a second term:
“I’m reminded of what happened when Napoleon escaped from Elba,” said the Davos regular in a reference to the return of the French emperor from exile in 1815. Should the Napoleon comparison stand, Trump’s generals would be the US titans of the technology sector, including the world’s richest person and a key Trump ally, Tesla’s Elon Musk. There is also Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
Read more: Is apartheid South Africa to blame for Big Tech politics?
None of them made the trip to the Swiss resort. Instead, they chose to attend his inauguration in Washington on 20 January, the day the WEF began. While the conference ran, with all its associations with globalisation, Trump was tearing up international agreements. He pulled out of the Paris accord on climate change and gave notice of the US’s intention to withdraw from the World Health Organisation.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was at Davos and drew attention to the dangers of global warming. After Trump stated his intention to return to fossil fuels, Guterres spoke on the dangers of climate change: “We just endured the hottest year and the hottest decade in history; 2024 is likely to be the first calendar year that pushed past 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels,” he said.
Peter Thal Larsen, the editor of Reuters Breakingviews, summed up more specific concerns over the WEF itself, writing simply: “Is Davos dead?”. Traditionally associated with free trade and international cooperation, the globalist’s main annual forum felt more like a sideshow as Trump returned to power and with him came a transformation in the worldwide positioning of the most powerful nation.
$1tn dollars
Indeed, it was Trump, not Davos, that grabbed the top headlines when his administration announced a $100bn investment in artificial intelligence (AI) through a partnership formed by Open AI, SoftBank and Oracle, which could reach $500bn dollars.
For his part, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told Trump that his government is willing to expand investments and trade with the US in the coming four years by $600bn. Trump mentioned the Saudi investment plan in his speech to the Davos attendees, adding: “I'll be asking the crown prince—who's a fantastic guy—to round it out to around $1tn. I think they'll do that because we've been very good to them”.
He had more to say to Riyadh: “I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil...if the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue. You've got to bring down the oil price. You're going to end that war.”
NATO, Ukraine and Europe
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was at the WEF. He told fellow attendees of his worries that the US may no longer provide the support required to carry on the fight against Russia and called on Europe, and the European Union, to strengthen its defence and technology industries, voicing concern over the main defence alliance protecting the continent: “Will President Trump even notice Europe? Does he see NATO as necessary? And will he respect EU institutions?”
“Let’s not forget – there’s no ocean separating European countries from Russia. And European leaders should remember this: battles involving North Korean soldiers (fighting on Russia’s side) are now happening in places geographically closer to Davos than to Pyongyang.”
