While he charmed, almost seduced viewers with a believable picture of the fast-moving US economy to scale new technological heights, he is simultaneously menacing with threats of tariffs on those who don’t choose to move their factories to the US.
Trillions of dollars in tariffs on the US Treasury for those businesses that export to the US market from foreign factories.
“Your prerogative,” he said with a smile that wouldn’t be out of place in a Godfather movie. And then for one of its own, Bank of America chief Brian Mynihan, a remarkable public turn accusing the credit giant of “dismantling” many of its conservative supporters.
He awkwardly mumbled about sponsoring the World Cup.
In this first week of his second term, most people in Davos are nodding off because they can’t think of what else to do.
Two ties that collided when the president of “America First” was propelled like a 30-foot interplanetary emperor into the heartbeat of the rules-based International Economic Order.
One thing that suggests the trade deficit is a problem with your household electorate. IT is another to suggest in the internationalist forum that G7 ally CanadaBecome the state of your nation by eliciting gasps from audiences and not just Canadians.
The address was charming and offensive by design. There was a carrot and stick for the rest of the world.
As delegates absorbed a mix of threats, invitations and, on occasion, praise, many seemed to be trying to decide how much Trump might damage the global trading system while assessing how far his America is getting in this tech boom.
Davos was the alternative pole of Trump’s second term in this first week.
There was consistency in his agenda of using all means lower energy prices, including Saudi pressure on oil.
He said that he will not only help reduce inflation, but also drain Russia’s military coffers of oil dollars to help end the war in Ukraine economically. The ceasefire in the Middle East has already bought Trump some geopolitical credibility in those circles.
Christina Lagarde, David Miliband and John Kerry moved to the hall. Various bank chiefs gathered on stage to praise and then slightly question the president.
The bottom line was this: Is President Trump serious about what have sounded like the campaign’s threats to the global economic system? The answer will be displayed for the next four years and beyond.
The answer was definitely yes, yes. However, that doesn’t mean it will work.
Some top US executives have told me they are preparing for TAT-for-TAT retaliatory tariffs to be applied to their exports. Their assumption was that the president’s love of a rising stock market would limit his rollout of tariffs.
But no one really knows. In any case, there is much to be desired. He has already withdrawn from the World Health Organization.
In the promenades, there were whispers from his allies of the 2025 project, which suggests that we withdraw from the IMF and the World Bank.
The rest of the world has some counter-leverage once it decides to come back after the Trump whirlwind.
