Trump whisperers, bullying and leaked texts: World leaders are still struggling to deal with the Rule of Don
“We’re going to Davos – it’s going to be an interesting trip,” said Donald Trump, just before boarding a delayed Air Force One flight to the annual World Economic Forum.
Hours later the US president was tearing into his European and Nato allies in a characteristically combative speech to world leaders and CEOs in Switzerland.
He threatened France with tariffs over drug prices, said Denmark had fallen to Nazi Germany within six hours and that without the US, everyone in the room would “all be speaking German…. and a little Japanese perhaps”.
Trump branded Canada’s leadership “ungrateful”, Europe “unrecognizable” and mixed up Iceland and Greenland repeatedly while still vowing to take the latter for “security reasons”.
And then came an entirely unveiled threat to those opposing his ambitions for the Danish territory: “You can say yes and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember.”
Since Trump first came to power a decade ago, presidents and prime ministers alike have been left struggling to know how best to navigate his behaviour and Davos was no different.
European leaders in particular have been accused of trying too hard to please him, failing to push back and taking one tone in public and another behind closed doors.
Trump’s whirlwind visit to the global gathering of political and business leaders saw the president cut deals and offer vital concessions in one breath and then publicly humiliate his supposed allies with the next.
But after a year of aggressive foreign policy that has seen the US force regime change in Venezuela and use widespread tariffs to start destructive trade wars, there is a sense that patience among some nations is finally wearing thin.
Some world leaders like British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer – notably absent from the event – have attempted to forge a reputation as a ‘Trump whisperer’ in a bid to keep him on side.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Nato secretary general and president of Denmark, said the Greenland crisis proves any bid to pander to Trump was pointless.
“The time for flattering is over,” he told reporters in Davos. “It doesn’t work. The fact is Trump only respects force and strength. And unity. That’s exactly what Europe should demonstrate right now.”
Critics like Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and French president Emmanuel Macron took shots at Trump’s new world order in their keynote speeches, though neither dared name him directly.
“We prefer respect to bullies, we prefer science to conspiracies, and we prefer the rule of law to brutality,” Macron said, while sporting headline-grabbing Aviator sunglasses.
