US President Donald Trump’s trip to Europe to speak at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss alpine town of Davos was possibly one he wished he had never made; such was its failure to impress.
First, his plane had to turn back due to a technical problem.
Second, he gave a typically hostile speech, but then he lived up to his nickname “Taco” (Trump always chickens out) over threats to invade Greenland that would have imperilled about a third of global trade.
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Third, he said disingenuously that if it hadn’t been for the US, “you’d all be speaking German”. Davos is German-speaking.
Fourth, he didn’t need to travel to Europe to give a political speech with a clear domestic agenda full of factual inaccuracies and empty boasts – except that it did contain some surprising truths. The US economy is doing relatively well despite economists’ hand-wringing over the uncertainty brought by Trump and his frequent rants on Truth Social.
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The damage wrought by the flip-flop imposition of tariffs; starting and self-declaring the end of wars; shake-downs of his actual, potential or perceived political opponents; getting involved in the minutiae of the private economy; attacking the independence of the US Federal Reserve and his One Big Beautiful Bill to cut taxes without increasing public revenue all contribute to stalled business decision-making.
