Maybe you are all looking at this visit to deeply.
Possibly Mr. Trump is just generally ticked off right now not because of how the world sees him but because he can't take a golf cart with him to anywhere he wants to go.
There is too much snow. He might have to walk:)
Sort of hard to take economic statements seriously from someone who is too embarrassed to release his taxes.
10
Why are taxpayer dollars paying for such a large entourage? The Director of Homeland Security? Almost the entire Cabinet? Jared Kushner?
7
The president foreshadowed the awkward and perhaps tense visit by slapping tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines just before departing Washington.
Testing, testing, testing. Like today's announcement time is running out on sanctuary cities just as mayors of major sanctuary cities were on their way for a White House visit. Trump does business with all the subtlety of an ape; just what you might expect from a serial bankrupt.
5
Davos guys are picking up the debt tab for this wonderful tax gift to his buddies, why not invite the payday loan president.
3
The Davos elites can't wait to see Trump. They're all looking forward to having a good laugh and ridiculing him behind his back. Should be fun.
5
May God help us on what ever comes out of that mouth of his...
Maybe it will be him singing "I wish I was away in Dixie" at one of my private golf courses in Florida when it's his turn at podium.
It doesn't matter anymore.
2
Davos should know that there's no reason to imagine Trump has a shred of wisdom to impart. He only wants to be king of the Davos club. The one percenters can count on him to act like the offish buffoon he is. Maybe they'll be entertained by the Reality TV star. "Believe me", "I can tell you" he won't disappoint.
4
I'm waiting for Sarah Duplicitous-Disingenuous to describe the conclusion of talks by twelve Pacific Rim nations to enter into a Trade Pact without the United States as a stroke of pure genius on the part of her president.
3
Davos is a bit of a joke already. Nothing that is done there really matters. How could it? People just listen to speeches and show off. Nobody skis or does anything productive.
This year Davos will just be a little jokier.
3
I stopped reading after "By any measure, he made a lot of money, the kid from Queens"
This is not a man who lifted himself up by the bootstraps. He's not a plucky Dickens character—he's a rich man's son. He was the picture of entitlement decades before that term was prescribed to every millennial.
Please stop buying into his narrative.
7
Please stop referring to the USA as "the world's last superpower." China has been a global superpower for many years, and if it were not for China's regular purchasing of worthless U.S. Treasury bills, the current American Führer's regime would have no money with which to keep its reckless, lawless, corrupt, racist, women-hating, xenophobic operations going. As your reporters know very well, China's central bank holds more than three billion USA dollars in cash. The USA is not a superpower. It is a war machine, a country whose federal budget is hugely and disproportionately focused on so-called defense -- that is, on handouts and pay-offs to the weapons-makers that line its corrupt politicians' pockets.
5
Make sure he is properly vetted before he re-enters the country.
5
Trump will brag that they've been begging him to come for years.
Then, after fifteen minutes of him shouting into their faces about how great he is and how honored they are to be with him, they'll want to pulverize whoever issued the invitation.
5
it's probably not a good thing that Trump is it Devils. The United Kingdom newspapers are already reporting with dismay that Trump has treated tourism May disrespectfully, cut her off, interrupted her. and did not let her speak.
2
New and unusual would be for the Pres. of US to be the first to hold a low profile, to be open to listening and learning from a World presence and gathering.
2
Trump is scheduled to speak LAST at Davos.
Dead last.
Most of the world will be packing up and getting ready to head home, by the time that Trump reads the remarks that were prepared for him by Stephen Miller.
I'm sure that the few people remaining in the audience, will pay as close attention to Trump's speech, as he pays to everyone else's speech.
4
Trump "is better able to understand what real people need"? - I don't know if this statement is some kind of joke or just sad irony that these wealthy people could possibly be more out of touch than Trump.
5
"It’s important for the Davos elite to hear from the populist president who, although a billionaire businessman himself, is better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well,” said Peter Van Praagh" WRONG. The only thing that trump is, is a self-promoter who will say and do anything to enrich himself and stoke his ego. He is colossally uninformed, relentlessly divisive and incapable of leadership. He is the embodiment of all that is wrong with contemporary culture in general and American politics in particular.
10
I think all the predictions about how will Trump behave in Davos have a ring of truth. But to me, the most interesting part will be how will Trump come back from Davos after being mesmerized by all the elites that would not let him in their circles. Will the last people talking to him before departure convert Trump into a globalist?
3
The Day-In-Davos script is predictable for the Narcissist-In-Chief. He truly believes these are his people who will adore and fawn all over him...like sycophant Pence, the Cabinet, and WH staff. I seriously doubt there will be any fawning, only politeness. He will commence his speech, reading it in that boring monotone that surfaces when he stays on-point, ensuring the audience only hears blah, blah, blah. Sensing the lack of enthusiasm for his august words, he will wildly veer off-script and offer up some new and recycled lies that bolster his righteous, nationalist agenda, likely creating an international incident of some sort. He will lap up the attention like a dog, fire off some nasty tweets to counter any perceived criticism while screaming fake news, thereby ensuring he remains at the top of the international news cycle as he flies home...but not before Sarah imperiously lectures the world press about their disrespectful behavior toward the president and false news reports while providing them the true, alternate facts.
5
President Trump will provide candor and critique to the world situation ; he should be listened to. He likes to get along with people, of course he has a point of view on a lot of issues.
I look forward to hearing him speak, and I hope he makes friends there for America, and talks deals with the people in attendance for the United States of America.
2
How could it be a logistical problem for Melania and not the other billionaire cabinet secretaries, plus unnecessary staff Trump is forcing taxpayers to pay for their Swiss vacation? How many tens of millions of dollars will this cost us. After holding funding for children hostage, this trip is an insult.I can't imagine him making any "deals" while he is there, unless it is to meet with the Russians. The other countries have moved on without us and left America behind.
Such a tremendous waste of money.
4
Terrific! They will reaffirm their original policy no doubt.
Hmmm -- I wonder how much carbon dioxide will be put into the atmosphere from private jets flying in, luxurious suites being heated, and private jets flying out . . . .
11
So true, how much of the Arctic will fall into the ocean, less from the jets and their pollution, than from the hot air and self importance of these whatevers.
3
‘Tis a hopeless situation, no? Best not to think about it. Should of had the meeting on that submerging Pacific island I read about today.
1
Oh, puh-leeze! It is utterly laughable for that man named Van Praagh to make the claim that Trump understands what real people need in the United States. I do not for one second in time believe that Trump understands very much of anything, or that he cares about anyone other than himself. Trump's appearance and performance at Davos is only a desperate grasping at any chance to be part of what he considers "the in-crowd". And we are all footing the bill for his sycophantic overnighter in Switzerland so he can entertain his hope that he might be seen as belonging. Disgusting.
25
USA is world’s last superpower?
Dream on. That distinction left the station decades ago. This is the problem with American’s; the insufferable assumption, even amongst highly educated American’s, that they are somehow “exceptional” and “great”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
20
As an American, I was also puzzled at that "distinction". I wondered how the author decided on this choice of description. America has been an exceptional experience but is definitely declining, unfortunately. Sometimes, it seems to me that describing America as exceptional is considered obligatory by some. Maybe, all countries feel the same of their own home.
1
“These same folks, as well as the business-media elite, generally find Trump to be a troublesome and boorish man,” Mr. D’Antonio said. “They may do what they can to ingratiate themselves, but privately and in some cases publicly they will reject him. He knows this as well as he knew that New York’s social elite rejected him in a similar way.”
Tell me something I don't know. Is this article an editorial piece?
7
Of course Trump will resent them. He will want revenge. Resentment permeates every decision he makes and all of the crazy, inaccurate and inappropriate-things he says. His tortured resentment propelled way of life. I wonder if they have any members from Africa, Haiti, Mexico or other regions and countries he’s slammed. We all know that if there’s any welcome where he speaks to a group he won’t be able hold back from a comment from resentment.
8
Trump is sure to be an embarrassment to our country in Davos. But he’ll return, no doubt, bragging about the fantastic job he did.
16
He's already embarrassed the country at devils. The UK newspapers are complaining about how disrespectfully and rudely he treated their prime minister, Theresa May.
1
The ultra rich have the idea that they are a class apart thinking they are better humans than we are.
Since 2015, Oxfam calculates, the richest 1% have owned more wealth than the rest of the planet.
These moguls might talk about inequality and poverty, as they work to skew the system to the disadvantage of you, me, and the rest of the world.
Donald the demagogue, will try to voice an argument of a false populism & nationalism, the only goal will be to provide an escape to address the ethical problems of the world.
8
You can't seriously argue that they aren't a class apart, because they obviously are.
It goes without saying that he will again do something crass and obnoxious, embarrassing his country and demonstrating why these people tried to ignore him for so long.
13
the UK newspapers already make it clear that Trump has embarrassed himself. Those newspapers are very upset at the way he is treated Theresa May, the prime minister of the UK. Apparently he was rude to her, cut her off, and generally treated her with the disrespect that he reserves for women who are more intelligent and competent men he is.
2
Davos is the Oscars of the political elite and their hangers on.
Nothing gets achieved except the Swiss get richer.
Even with all the hot air generated, you know it is hardly beneficial when snow there hardly melts.
In that spirit of Oscars, the POTUS having won in the grandest soap opera as a Leading Man - deserves to go there.
They say the Chinese dictator made a big impression last year - yet a year later, he is hardly mentioned.
I live in India and India's PM made a great entry with a large delegation - I think the whole cabinet - hey, free vacation - and a cast of hundreds of hangers on.
He lectures the world on globalization but his domestic policies still put a big thumb on scales of a free market.
Heck, his government will not allow Apple to open just one store.
And the list goes on - just ask our embassy here.
So, the POTUS should at least - unlike Indian PM - speak truth of "America First" and emphasize it is not "America Alone."
A POTUS who famously rarely left his lofty condo when he was a private citizen - the mere fact - he is traveling to engage these pretenders - a splendid example of not "America Alone"
5
“The president will continue to promote fair economic competition and will make it clear that there cannot be free and open trade if countries are not held accountable to the rules,”
The wealth of the world depends on free and open trade. States improve under fair economic competition - in turn for the world this means there is more money for achieving human progress. More food production, safe water and sanitation, better health, literacy and available widespread education and most importantly increased democratic freedoms and governance reforms.
Will they be nice to the president of the US or to Trump? give odds on the former and not the latter.
2
Let’s see who he shoves out of the way at this gathering, given his penchant for pushing lesser mortals out of the way.
Hope all those coal miners, farmers, and factory workers who voted him pause for a moment to wonder why on earth he’s there, since he’s all about the common man. NOT.
Or maybe since Mueller seems hot on his trail, he’ll skip on over to Baku and put himself in exile. One can only hope.
9
Good luck Davos attendees you are in for a treat and a treatment.
2
"He will also host a dinner for European corporate chieftains." 7 cabinet members will attend, too as in, Tillerson and Mnuchin. Who'll be footing the bill at this dinner? What I'm wondering is whether it will be POTUS (oh come on, I'm not that insane) or we taxpayers ? If the new tax scam bill is going to results 1 and a half billion$ in lost revenue, I think that with this dinner we can safely add another half a billion to the deficit, haha.
5
Since Air Force One probably burns through $20K for each hour it's in the air, I wouldn't sweat the small stuff.
1
Lost revenue?? Lost to who? To me it means I get to keep more of the money already in my pocket. This is kept revenue to me.
1
I'll bet our businessman/president thinks he can make some headway into Trump Hotels soon popping up all over Europe. If that happens he has only the American Taxpayers to thank.
5
I just hope that he doesn't get snubbed and/or put in his rightful place while attending. Who knows what he might do to get even. Getting even (and bullying) is all he really knows.
13
I think we give Trump too much credit.
Most probably do not care he went. He will give a few speeches, largely be ignored, might say something stupid, come back to America. Furthermore, the attempt by Mr. Baker to fabricate this story of Trump being a ostracized billionaire vying for acceptance among those at Davos is grasping for straws. Nice story, not sure how much of it is rooted in fact.
7
It is not unusual for a narcissist to seek recognition, acceptance and respect over knowledge and understanding.
In fact, it's pretty typical.
3
You may think he might care that he wasn't invited to past seasons, but I'm also remind of some German politician that was nonplused that he didn't get into art school.
Or was he?
Does anyone really expect a wave of humanity to come from Davos? The only real inroad toward global solution-making will come when the 1 percent of those who control 50 percent of the capital see a necessity for further balance. The world is a neighborhood. Care should be given of course to human populations but who is to configure it? Political leaders are in the pockets of business leaders and business leaders are in the pockets of political leaders. Where is a common man to turn? We hope it is democracy, but what of the choices? As Benjamin Franklin said: "A penny saved is a penny earned." Can't start much of a revolution with that. Or can you?
7
This will be the perfect opportunity for Team Trump to meet with its Russian donors and give them an update on their successful venture. Go USA!
17
Why is this article presented as news? President Trump is “smoldering with resentment” at the global elites? And if Hillary were attending would the article be how thrilled the world is that women have finally arrived? What everyone wants to know is long these global elitists have until they are dismissed from their haughty perches by more populists.
3
Any attendee at Davos with a spine or integrity will not even engage President Trump. He merits no attention or respect, which is also what he craves above all else. Until America can excise the Trump poison from its system, America merits no international respect either.
16
I don't think the word "integrity" is one that is generally associated with Davos.
"Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said on Tuesday that the first lady was not coming to Davos because there were “too many scheduling and logistical issues.”"
Having been married to the same woman for over 50 years, I believe that the statement which is quoted is Melania's way of saying that "I don't have anything to wear."
That is ok, Melania. You have done very well for yourself on earlier occasions when you didn't have anything to wear.
10
Based on the Trump entourage of cabinet members attending and the number of Russian bankers and oligarchs attending plus the Kaspersky crew -- I'd say that the Russian handlers are going to give Trump and the Trumpettes their first annual review.
20
They didn't want him in the past - the want him even less now. He is going to make a fool of himself and by extension the USA.
23
Hey Pete, ever heard of China or Russia? Or an economic superpower called Germany? Anyway, Donnie's levying of tariffs on washing machines and solar panels hardly smacks of globalization. And the one on solar is a wet kiss (yech) for coal, oil, and natural gas.
8
"Whatever else, he cannot be ignored now" ridiculed yes, but not ignored.
16
It's the same old 1% song. But see how quickly they can change their tune.
1
The worlds last superpower?
Trumps America First handed that mantle to China.
So much for Great Again.
13
"Committed to Improving the State of the World". Trump is only committed to "making America Great Again."
3
In healthcare, and specifically Catholic Healthcare, there is an old adage; no margin, no mission. It means that it is all fine and good to have a mission to care for the poor and disenfranchised but if you are broke you cant fulfill your mission. You have to be financially successful in order to fund the good works your mission calls you to do. Such is the world as a whole. Without the financial ‘juice’ being provided by Trumps approach to American business (ie. lower corporate tax rates and less regulation), there wouldn’t be the margins necessary to fund the humanitarian acts advocated by organizations like the World Economic Forum. And, unlike Trumps domestic critics, they know it!
So which corporations and billionaires have stepped up since the tax bill passed to pledge their windfall to charitable and philanthropic causes?
3
Well, Apple is going to invest $5 billion of their windfall in constructing a second headquarters and filling it with new employees. Charity starts at home and investing that amount in the US economy rather then leaving idle in offshore banks is a very worthy cause.
Fellow Americans, at least we're still the entertainment capital of the world. P. T. Barnum would be proud.
10
Not not not a Trump supporter:
As a Democrat I resent Democrats who are elected officials rubbing shoulders with those attending Davos. As a contract worker I had a great deal of resentment when President Obama fresh from a meeting with Bill Gates showed a great deal of contempt for contract workers like me. Politicians who visit Davos do not represent me.
So Trump is envious of the elite? Compared to whom?
4
He was an inept businessman, lucky enough to have backing to get him through more bankruptcies than he can apparently count. The audience at Davos has seen inept heads of state and rabid protectionists before. It's likely they will see more in the future. Trump has no knowledge or even curiosity regarding policy. Listening to him is a waste of time.
12
Who is behind Trump's going to Davos? Did he come up with the idea or did someone, or several people, in the administration decide he should go? What is the rationale? I'd like to know more than I know already about the decision-making, if that's what it is, behind the trip. It is not a mandatory rite of passage for a U.S. president . The trip is a risky endeavor for Trump, given his propensity to go off the message written by aides and to insult fellow attendees by boorish behaviour such as pushing them out of his way. I doubt that Trump will consider himself vindicated by attending Davos, as he always finds himself to be a sore winner, as graceless in victory as he is in loss. The Swiss will keep protestors out of the way, attendees will turn the other cheek, and Huckabee will spin Trump as a standout on the world stage.
12
Every day is some kind of bizarre victory celebration for Trump. His major accomplishment is the fact that Americans can be suckers for celebrity. His lame stump speech slogans won't play well in Davos. This trip won't be pretty, but in Donald's mind it will be very terrific.
11
Doesn't the term "Leader" imply there is true leadership? Mr. Trump is not my leader nor does he have the requisite skills to aspire to that position.
8
If Trump gets through his address on Friday without embarrassing himself and the United States, the media will declare him presidential. If he makes gross missteps while there, we'll collectively shrug because we've become accustomed to national embarrassment.
10
Canada should have left the American nest decades ago and we owe a tremendous debt to President Trump to draw attention to that fact. Since Reagan our values and the fabric that holds our two nation together is very different. Just as Judaism forbids the mixing of linen and wool when Reagan arrived on the scene we embraced his singing partner Mulroney a sin many of us still regret.
Carter showed us the kind of American we believed in when he lead a team of engineers and technician into a failing nuclear reactor to prevent its meltdown. When America chose a man such as Reagan over Carter we should have headed for the hills instead we invited you to take care of us.
Your President has given us the finger and if that wasn't enough his friend President Duterte has given us the finger and I am grateful to both of them.
We have stayed in the nest too long and I am thankful to Mr Trump for finally giving us the boot or at least the one finger good-bye wave.
4
For all his bluster and hubris, throughout his career Trump has been little more than a hustler and a scam artist. His multiple bankruptcies, his endless sequence of unpaid loans, stiffed contractors and lawsuits speaks of a man who is nowhere near the league of the business elites who have snubbed him for so long. And if we add Trump's suspected dealings with Russian oligarchs and their dirty money, there are even more reasons why nobody would ever consider inviting him to Davos.
Now he's barging through the door as POTUS, and I look forward to the ridiculous show that he will make of himself. A small time hustler trying to mix with the titans of industry and the world's leading thinkers. What an embarrassment for America.
14
Andy, that's pretty much on the money. Thanks.
4
Most Davos attendees are old inherited European money, Arabic Monarchy oil money or Asian paper money (trading on others work and striking it rich). Very few are true tycoons in the spirit of a Howard Hughs or Steve Jobs. I think Trump will hold his own just fine among a bunch of folks that stumbled into their wealth.
Will Mr Trump, by grandstanding amongst people who basically despise him as much as ever, expose his extraordinary ignorance on economics and just basic accounting, and consolidate his position among their ranks as the titular head of a small family real estate business, with delusions of grandeur, who has been promoted far beyond his level of competence by a quirk of American politics?
Will he mightily embarrass the USA with bad manners and boorish behaviour as he has so frequently done in the past 12 months?
YES.
10
Here's my prediction. Trump deliver some kind of incoherent yet combative speech. He'll then soften his anti-free trade stance in private, maybe get access or financial subsidies to build hotels and golf resorts in a few more countries in exchange. Trump supporters will declare victory. Iphones will still be made in China. Life in the era of Trump goes on.
4
It will be fun to see how much he gets shunned. Who will be dumb enough to have a one-on-one photo op with this abomination ? An assembly of great brains and power and perhaps some will be invited over to share the cheeseburgers, which have been flown in and kept locked up so that they don't get tampered with. Somehow I cannot see Mr Cook and Mr Bezos and Mr Zuckerberg wanting to be in the same building, let alone town, as him.
Of course Trumpy will declare that they were all hanging on his every word. No, Donny, that will be very fake news.
46
Mr. Trump nurses real or imagined slights for years until he gets a chance to sting the perpetrator's by erasing their executive orders, or making them kowtow at international meetings. Not exactly an endearing quality.
15
The political and business elites at Davos are, no doubt, very well aware of the quickening pace of the Mueller investigation, as it particularly ramps up in the obstruction of justice, criminal conspiracy, and money laundering subject areas. Most likely, these internationalists will be as tolerant and ego-stroking as is possible to the disruptive, retrenching Trump and his entourage while carefully avoiding any firm or extended commitments, rightfully treating them as lame-ducks in an Administration whose days are numbered.
Trump and Company will return home from an expensive foreign junket with some inflated "success" stories and deceptive statistics, but nothing of any significant or lasting value for the nation, as usual. The Fake President's propaganda chief, Huckabee Sanders, will then dutifully spout some routine falsehoods in a subsequent briefing about the many notable accomplishments of the wondrous trip. The deviant equilibrium of this sham White House will have been restored.
27
Davos will likely welcome Trump.
Rising world stock markets, lower corporate tax rates and falling unemployment should make for a convivial gathering. Somehow, one suspects that other problems in the world are not the concern of those attending this conference.
9
If they're ignoring the rampant nihilism spawned by chronic futility, they're not paying attention.
1
I am in favor of a Constitutional Amendment to go into effect immediately clarifying the circumstances under which Presidents can be removed from office; making it clear that the House and Senate may, by acting together and by simple majority vote, expel a President from office for no reason at, all without any right of appeal; while citing for justification. the well established, frequently utilized, and repeatedly upheld legal principle “Happy Is The One Who Rids Himself Of A
Pest.”
16
It is very dangerous to just leave vacuums to fill by the luck of the draw. You need to have a better solutions to replace them.
1
Wouldn't it be just peachy if the dinner he plans to attend has no other attendees?
19
The world's 'last' superpower? Or the world's 'only' superpower? I'm not sure if that appellation is a blessing or a curse. It seems that more and more we're a super power in name only. We keep getting into little wars that become big wars and our 'friends' in the country that we're 'helping' aren't exactly grateful. The various presidents we have had since the end of WWII have found that being a super power doesn't buy friends and too often makes enemies. Too many politicians seem to think that because we have a powerful military, we have to use it to solve problems and that we get to call the shots. That attitude is what gets us in a 'forever war' that will never end. There's nothing super about a power that can't control its militaristic impulses.
12
Mr. Van Praagh might be better served if he learns about the President from the American citizens who, over the last year, have seen just how little Mr. Trump himself learns about anything. Mr. Van Praagh, like us Americans, will probably see for himself that Mr. Trump doesn't care to learn new things. For all his optimistic hopes, Mr. Van Praagh might be better served if he lowers his expectations as many of us have learned to do.
5
It will be interesting to see just what kind of respect Mr Trump actually gets at the World Economic Forum. As the tweeting, trade-pact-destroying, "America-First", Globalization-bashing Trump he will receive scorn and cold-shoulders from most parties present. After all, there no evidence he is even a billionaire in his own right. But as POTUS he will still receive respect because of the office he holds and the economy that office strongly influences, but not because of his behaviour while in that office.
7
Too bad Davos is attached to money otherwise it would be nice if they slammed the door on him. So if anyone in this country did not know, yes the Pretend King Trump is for protecting business interest and making money not to represent us or protect our interests. Davos 1, U.S. 0. Mueller is not ready yet.
11
. Protectionism is the progressivism of fools. Gandhi was a great statesman but a horrible economist. Just as the ignorant in the USA argue that American workers who earn $15 per hour should not have to compete with Chinese workers who make $2 per hour, Gandhi thought that Indian workers should not have to compete with American and European workers who have the benefit of modern machines. As a result India adopted protectionism. In 1947 the per capita income of India was similar to countries such a South Korea. By 1977 the per capita income and standard of living in South Korea was many times that of India. India has since largely abandoned protectionism and has benefited immensely from free trade.
Protectionism can save jobs. In the USA the best measurement of the cost per job saved to the rest of the country is about $1 million per job saved. Saving one job might provide $100,000 in gains to the worker and the employer who benefit from the protectionism, but cost the rest of the country $1,000,000. Since the million dollars is just one third of one cent per person in the USA, no one notices it.
To save a million jobs via protectionism would cost the country a S1 trillion which would be about the same impact as a very severe recession. To save 10 million jobs via protectionism would cost the country a S10 trillion. That would make the USA a poorer country than Mexico. .."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4026652
4
The fly in your ointment is consumerism. India, at the time, was such an impoverished nation that their ability to buy the goods they produced was almost non existent. Since WWII, America has been a veracious consumer of goods and and this degree of consumerism cushions us from the theoretical impact of protectionism that is displayed in your post.
South Korea had a similar per capita income (in $) as India, at the beginning of the period. India had such protectionist policies that at one time it was illegal to import computers into India as part of their "protect workers from fancy American and European machinery" policy. India has since largely abandoned protectionism and has benefited immensely from free trade. Just as David Ricardo proved would be the case when he developed the concept of comparative advantage..."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4026652
1
We paid millions of travel dollars for Trump to visit a meeting that serves only the rich, of which he doesn't belong. He visits under our privilege of President, nothing more. yet it feeds this game show host.
12
So far, Trump has implemented no policies at all and the positive economic measures fall into two categories:
1. Ones that were already rising independent of the new admin
2. Ones that are directly related to optimism on the part of Trump's economic constituents (the investor class) who see that the government is turning them loose to prey on the buyers and workers, plenty of boost there...for investors.
Trump's other constituency, working class white middle America, is evidently slow on the uptake, and will be among those that will be getting squeezed more than their temporary tax savings by loss of services as the Plan B part of the tax strategy comes in in the net few years.
1
sorry Folks.
Seems like Trump is driving the US economy to great heights and soon the world economy.
5
The world economy was doing well without Trump.
He's reaping the benefits of Obama's hard work.
The stock market may be doing better because of Trump's tax break to corporations. Sadly, most Americans don't own stocks and won't benefit from this.
8
False - this was the trend long before Trump was "elected".
7
It feels like you're floating when you're in free fall, in physics.
1
by any measure, he certainly did well for a kid who started out with only a million dollars.
8
He'll be welcomed as the hero that lowered their corporate taxes and gave them a windfall worth billions.
4
The majority of attendees at Davos are not Americans so Mr Trump's tax cuts matter little to them.
3
They will welcome him for the money they make in the market. They think that deregulation and tax windfalls are enough for a faux businessman to be welcome.
The richest and the elite will tout him as their hero, overlooking his low class mentality and countenance.
Trump will run with this as the best reception any U.S. president ever received and that these very self important elites are now his friends. Then he will trash them because of his feelings of having been rejected in the past.
When these elite and clubby folks meet we can be sure it is not with the intention of doing good. That they will leave to the humanitarians also gathered.
Is putting tariffs on washing machines and solar panels foretelling to inviting them to spend their money in the good old USA?
By foreign investment does he mean enriching his son in law by selling real estate to them.
It will all come out soon enough.
5
Trump’s message: America is open for business; but we don’t believe in free trade. Don’t worry about unemployment in your countries. Bring your own workers, as long as they are white. Don’t worry about environmental regulations, we deny global warming. We’ll cut some trade deals, and then back out when we feel like it. Health care will cost you, because we can’t manage that. And, we’ll micromanage certain sectors of the economy to reward supporters and to punish opponents.
11
Davos is people who speak the speak and want to be commended for it but don't (necessarily) walk the walk.
3
"We might see both Trumps, the testy and the triumphant, uncertain whether he is superior or inferior"
But we will never see a humble Trump, grateful for any successes he might have had but self-aware of his own failures and able to admit them.
4
" ...as leader of the world’s last superpower..." as the destructor of the world's current superpower, would be a better phrase. guaranteed, another superpower is on the rise, be it china or india or a reformed Russian confederation of some sort. we are in the waning days of our leadership, production, education and innovation. we are the roman empire after nero, and just before the visigoths and vandals come running down to destroy us, and we just roll over because we will have no unity, strength of will or backing.
4
Trump will attempt to read the speech that Miller has written for him. If true to form, he will stumble over some of the more difficult words whilst faced with an embarrassed silence from the audience. Why not cut out the middle man, save a lot of taxpayer dollars and just send Miller?
9
Indeed, he should still be spurned. His business acumen is nonexistent, a perfect example of which is his new solar tariff which is estimated to cause a loss of jobs an order of magnitude greater than any it creates.
3
At least American workers finally seem to be seeing through Trump's lies (see Carrier layoffs, for example, or AFL-CIO statements).
4
It might be time to take a few history lessons when the US is called the "world's last superpower." We may be a current "superpower" but we won't likely be the last. We may not even be one for long.
1
US the world's last superpower?
Perhaps.
But the skill with which China has exploited our retreat into irrationality and incompetence certainly keeps them in the running for such a title.
Not to mention the extent to which the response of Germany and Canada to the global refugee crisis has elevated those two countries to the top of the global "compassion index."
I just hope we don't forget that, just as the Trumpian decline wasn't inevitable, neither is its slow reversal once the nightmare ends.
4
The World Economic Forum is the poster child of what is wrong with our Capitalist system. A gathering of the most elite, out of touch people in the world. A reminder that 1% of the world’s population took almost half of all the wealth generated in the past year. The problem today is that working harder isn’t enough to make you financially successful. When it eventually reaches a tipping point where people realize the economy is rigged, and it will, then the whole thing will come crashing down.
2
Its interesting that the article claims that Trump cannot be ignored whilst in the same text citing Canada's trade agreement with 10 Pacific Rim countries without the US. The world's last superpower's economy is booming, no one can deny this, it is impossible to claim Trump has anything to do with this. Apple, whose ethical positions are diametrically opposed to those of the Trump whitehouse, according to its leader, is teetering on the brink of a $1 trillion valuation. No matter what theatrics Trump comes up with at Davos or on Twitter, it makes no difference to the world's organizations or other countries, they will find their own way to flourish. In the meantime, the Meuller investigation will continue, oblivious to it all, and we can all take a breath while the toddler with the nuclear codes is out of the country.
1
Even though he's in the oval office, I don't sense that those in attendance are going to view him differently than they have in the past. Indeed, because of his ridiculous tweets and overall performance, not to mention the bits and pieces oozing out of his administration regarding the Russian investigation, they may be more reluctant about his presence.
3
I guess the message here is what America really needs is a President who represents our country by putting it's people last on his or her list of priorities whenever he interacts with the outside world.
1
So China's not a superpower? If not, it certainly will be when Trump is done with us.
5
"Mr. Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower... "
Unfortunately, Mr. Trump seems to only be interested in leading his base. He shows very little interest in leading the rest of us... unless you count his casting us as the enemy.
2
Any tenth grader can tell you that a huge cut in corporate taxes means a 30% stock market run-up. It's nothing to brag about. The real issues with the economy begin after that.
2
The last superpower? I don't think so. China has rapidly risen to that status and is conquering the world by buying their way in.
3
I don't know... he might just fit in with the bunch of money grubbers. It isn't going to make any difference to issues that really matter. Nothing that happens at Davos ever does make any real difference other than making the wealthy ever wealthier and the wealth disparity even greater. It is just an efficient tool for making sure the elite stay the elite and more countries around the world work more efficiently to make more wealth for the already wealthy. It's all about making sure consumerism thrives and the environmental, social and gender issues be damned.
2
I was darkly amused to read in the byline on this article that Trump is described as "the leader of the world's last superpower." Trump is not a leader and the U.S. is no longer a "superpower." Historically, "superpower" was used during the cold war to to define the U.S. and Russia as opposing cultural, economic and political systems. Those days are gone. Trump is a greedy tyrant and the United States has become an abusive, violent nation which spends a large percentage of its treasure invading and bombing countries around the world, because that's what nations that are in moral anarchy do -- instead of looking inward at their own psychic and cultural problems, they project them out into the world onto someone else. Trump makes his inner psychological war into a political war in the outer world. He cannot help it. It is his destiny.
8
I don't think they have the guts but I would love to see them all turn their backs on him
13
Yet another article exploring the psyche of Donald Trump while the world burns. Come on.
6
Prepare for another week of global embarrassment and disgrace. “Part of him will feel the resentment that has long smoldered within and part will revel in the fact that he’s the president and no one else is,” said Michael D’Antonio, a Trump biographer. I have heard that the definition of resentment is 'drinking the poison and hoping that someone else will die'. I hope Trump starts by drinking the poison.
5
Of course Trump was never invited as a businessman. Davos only invites successful business leaders.
Dan Kravitz
16
Sarah,
Most successful business leaders don't declare bankruptcy multiple times and stiff contractors.
BTW, you left caps lock on.
For starters, a businessman who hasn't lost a billion dollars of his daddy's money over 45 years.
Dan Kravitz
1
This is like the nerd in high school who was rejected by the cool kids who got rich via the internet and went to his high school reunion to brag.
Trump is only going to say "look at me, I'm the President of the US" and to show off the large entourage. No doubt he will not be conducting US Business while there but Trump Hotel business at the expense of the American taxpayer.
As Bugs Bunny would say "what a maroon"
11
The one percent have done enough damage. Sad.
3
What will really get Trump’s goat, is while he is busily shoveling lucre into their pockets, the billionaire boys will still treat him like a millionaire.
6
The Davos phenomenon is AAA pretense and phoniness as the absurdly wealthy congratulate each other on the incredible wisdom and integrity that "created" their unconscionable wealth.
I despise Trump, but rather like the idea that he might disrupt their charade.
4
What would make him think that this group will accept or respect him now? If fact, now that he has exposed himself as hateful, incompetent and untrustworthy, they may accept him even less. Though I imagine that this group already knew this about him.
3
Is it better to have the free press or the smart press?
Here is one of the article subtitles:
“Never invited when he was merely a businessman, President Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower”
What is China?
If Beijing doesn’t insist on being addressed in such a way it only means that they are overconfident and assured that the time is working for them...
They are trying to lay low in order not to alert and awake us...
Cue cringe-worthy moments...
2
I hope Trump has a caretaker at Davos, someone to monitor his every word.
Because who knows what he'll agree to if left in a room alone to discuss anything with anyone.
4
According to one Peter Van Praagh, Trump " is better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well. " What planet is this gentleman from? What Trump person is he alluding to? Sorry my kind sycophantic Mr. Praagh but Mr. POTUS cares not for anyone other than the man in the mirror, certainly not most Americans. These DAVOS people have no interest or respect for the man but if he can continue to pander to the uber wealthy as he has done with the recent tax cuts in this Country then they'll ingratiate themselves only to make snide and condescending comments when he is out of earshot - he is to them a pariah.
4
“It’s important for the Davos elite to hear from the populist president who, although a billionaire businessman himself, is better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well,” said Peter Van Praagh, the president of the Halifax International Security Forum, another annual gathering.
While I agree it’s good for elite to hear from the 99%...
1. Donald Trump is not a populist president, though he did take advantage of populism to become elected
2. Donald Trump doesn’t and is likely incapable of ever understanding what real people need in the U.S.
3. Donald Trump does not represent the majority of people of this country. Though he is effective in representing the interests of Russia, the elite, racists, and anyone else who wishes the clock stopped the 1950s.
9
Trump should be shunned by all with a sense of decency.
8
Trump will never have the acceptance of the Global elite. Money can buy a lot of things but it can't buy class. What I can't figure out is why anyone would hold a dinner in his honor in Europe after a year of boorish behavior.
5
If he makes any deals, they'll be the greatest deals in the history of humankind.
If he doesn't make any deals, then it's because Davos is filled with those elitist globalists to whom the Democrats are beholden.
And if he doesn't go skiing, it's because he's too good and doesn't want to show anyone up.
And if there are any Russian "investors" there, well . . . he almost has the money.
1
“Will political and corporate leaders at Davos seek to flatter Trump to get on his good side or give him the cold shoulder given their growing concerns about his leadership?”
Trump has a good side?
3
'Mr. Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower...'
Really? And...with a straight face, tsk tsk. Like many great civilizations and powers of the past, America has slipped into a decadent dysfunctional role in the global community. A government shutdown to mark the new administration's first year on the job. Folks in the global community are watching and shaking their heads. What happened to the brave and mighty America of our founding fathers who penned:
'Give me your tired, your poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'?
Words that once made America the greatest nation on Earth.
They will treat him as an equal and will offer up the sycophantic praise that Trump craves like a heroine addict craves his next fix. But behind his back, they will laugh at him.
2
"Never invited when he was merely a businessman, Mr. Trump will arrive on Thursday as" an accident, still not, and never to be, a peer...
1
My prediction: After Trump's Davos trip, Trump will see how cheap USD has become.
After back in the WH, he will tweet and tell his entire cabinet to ...
Make Dollars Great Again.
"But I was at "DAVOS" can now be added to the ever droning "There is no collusion." Get you earplugs.
1
“ . . . world’s last superpower. . . “
Am I missing something. Hasn’t Trump given China room to seize the title of ascendant superpower? Mistrusted worldwide, divided by a foreign power, discordant, disarrayed? All because a minority wanted a shake-up. Super-power or basket case?
From trump, one can only hope he will behave, and not disgrace the country, as he has on all other foreign trips.
2
After the past year, I'm not sure I would consider the US a "super" power anymore. Big military? Yes. Superpower? Not so much. Trump has turned us into a global embarrassment.
Great cartoon in The Australian (online version) today of all the TPP leaders playing in an exclusive playground and pretending not to see Trump trying to break into the members only enclosure.
1
Article informative, except contrary to common opinion we are no longer a superpower. Our government is decomposing and ineffectual and we lose all wars Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq with Syria , Yemen, and Libya among our other messes. We have lost the respect of world leaders. We are no longer a superpower.
1
To everyone heaving invective at Mr. Trump, remember you only have 3 more years (OK, maybe seven more years) minus four days to do so while he's President.
You're kidding right?!?!
He wasn't invited when he was a businessman because he was a failure who had to be bailed out by Saudi princes and Chinese billionaires who attend Davos.
Trump doesn't even rate amongst the titans of New York real estate.
Trump doesn't rate next to people like Richard Branson who is actually a self made billionaire, who pays his taxes, uses his own money in order to keep his employees employed when businesses hit hard patches.
Most of the executives at DAVOs wouldn't even loan Trump a bitcoin. He might find someone to talk to if the head of Deutchebank attends.
Trump couldn't even keep up with the G8 leaders, mumbling random white nationalist slogans. I would love to see him rehash Stephen Miller talking points to the people like Jamie Dimon or Malala Yousafzai.
I'm glad he's going to DAVOs actually, just keep heaping on the embarrassment. Tell the chefs to order one Happy Meal and lots of ketchup for our Commander and Chief.
4
They can keep him. We don't want him around here.
3
Irrespective of what he says nobody at Davos will belie him.
1
Can they keep him? What if we say please?
3
Yes, fantastic, Donald and his fabulous super-model wife Mela---oh, never mind about that.
2
I will be listening for talk of currency valuations coming from Davos. Trump and his unschooled Boys are pushing for the lower dollar which no one seems to be questioning. The idea being lower prices = more sales (export sales). A simple idea or a Simpleton's idea? Think about this please:
You are selling Made-in-the-USA Blue Widgets (BWs) for $10 each back in January 2017, a year ago, when the dollar was worth about 1.04 Euros. You sell 100 of them for roughly a $1,040. The dollar falls in value by 20% (which has happened in the past year, at $1.24 to the Euro today) and now the same 100 BWs can be bought by foreigners for roughly $800. So now you have to sell 25% more of those BWs to those same foreigners just to get back up to the $1,000 gross sale of January 2017. That is why even with the falling dollar our balance of trade is getting worse despite the 20% sale.
Mnuchin and Trump want the magical low dollar to serve as a silver bullet. Meanwhile do you see any Americans not buying foreign made products? I don't...
Maybe Donald just wants foreigners to come over here and buy his real estate. Now that the FBI are looking hard at his previous Russian "investors", he probably needs a new crop of chumps (pay to players). Don't put it past Trump to place the whole country on sale with a lowered dollar just to sell a few his condos...
1
This article calls the US the last Super Power. Gee I hope so. Wherever it goes it makes things worse. One Vietnam after another all of my life, and thank goodness we have lost all of our horrible interventions, except Grenada. The less I see of it the better I like it. Yankee go home!
1
How can this president dare to go this economic forum where global economy is the focus and every one attending will have in mind that very soon he will to have to answer Robert Mueller questions and might be indicted for obstruction of justice. He is tarnishing the reputation of the United States but he does not care.
I'm surprised that Mr. Baker does not consider neither Russia nor China a superpower.
You want to know why America has issues?...When authors write lines like, "Mr. Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower,"...the end result is someone like Trump.
2
And just how much will this vainglorious excursion cost the taxpayers?
3
Wasn't it Groucho Marx who said, "I wouldn't want to belong to a club who would have me as a member", or some such??
Merkel and other leaders have made clear their disdain and rejection of how Trump is behaving, his poor communications, lack of coherent foreign policy, and lack of understanding of global economics. Many Americans feel the same way.
Trump is NOT advancing the cause of America in the "global village", and his divisive rhetoric and inane commentary benefit none of us. VOTE HIM AND HIS SPINELESS REPUBLICAN LACKEYS OUR OF OFFICE!! Let's have a return to SENSIBLE leadership.
1
Are we supposed to believe that China is not a 'superpower'?
The fat outcast wants to preen in front of the cool kids. Pathetic.
2
I heard his wife doesn't want to go. Will he bring the porn lady? PLOTUS?
6
Screw those stupid working class rubes who voted for me. I'm going to take my Goldman-Sachs, New York bankster, Money Laundering, squirrelly Kansas conspiracy theory huckster cabinet and go off and hob nob with billionaires.
Anyone who ever again votes for somebody because they ran a business needs to be put in therapy for recidivist delusions.
7
Mr. President. Please don't embarrass us.
3
test
The last world power...?
6
Sorry Switzerland.
9
How much is this ego-stroking sleepover going to cost the American taxpayers? Speaking of sleepover, is Oh, Wilburrrrr Ross going, too? He'll sleep right thru it all, but maybe some evil Kazak will expose him as a non-billionaire in front of all the other billionaires?
6
Maybe this globalization capitalist soulless cabal will switch him for Alec Baldwin and we’ll be on easy street.
2
The World's last superpower? Huh?
2
Most Europeans now know and realize what a buffoon Trump really is..That said, hopefully he and his band will be ignored to some degree.
Is it true Stormy Daniels is planning to visit Davos, too?
3
He's going to gin up biz and M-O-N-E-Y! For himself! Of course.
2
Worlds last super-power?
What fantasy land does the writer "Peter Baker" live in?
The pinnacle of US power was on 9/11 and since then, our country has been in decline!
You complain about tariffs on solar panels being dumped in our country? Yet you never consider the 3.23 Trillion in US Cash Reserves held by the Chinese?
Do you live in La La Land?
Is the NYT (and its writers) even capable of publishing an unbiased newspaper?
2
America elected Trump to con the Chinese out of this money. How's he doing?
1
Davos will end and they'll all go home. Meanwhile, nurses aids go off to work at midnight for $10 an hour.
7
When the "free" trade, globalist elite are traveling on tumbrels rather than in limos, they'll perhaps have second thoughts about the effects of the world order they foistered on us.
Trump, unfortunately, will accomplish nothing. He doesn't understand sufficient detail on any matter to be effective, and his personality is the other shoe dropping.
Re 'free" trade: Fair competition means we levy tarriffs on goods and services sufficient to equalize cost differentials accruing from:
$15/hour wages vs. $1/hour wages; worker protections (OSHA) vs none; healthcare, vacation, pension and other benefits vs few or none; environmental protection regulations vs few or none; market-rate costs for investment funds vs free capital provided by the state (see, China).
Equalize for these routine sources of cost differential, and then we'll have trade that is mutually beneficial. But Trump understands none of this. For example, questioning trade between America and Europe or Canada is ridiculous... the cost structures of the respective parties are very similar. It's trade with Latin America and Asia that needs to be placed on an equitable basis.
Also, it's absurd that Trump has his two Goldman Sachs boys overseeing the NAFTA negotiations. Moreover, the only proper way to fix NAFTA is to blow it up.
Have fun partying with the global scum (I'm sorry, I meant the global elite), Mr. Trump.
2
Remember...pride cometh before a fall. Donald...time’s up.
2
That is right. President Trump cannot be ignored.
Hear him roar!
I've been listening to this blowhard "roar" for two years. It's disgusting.
4
Hear him roar before he goes to jail!
2
Should be fun to watch our Fake President try to bully and bluster the Davos crowd. I hope there's video.
3
Of course he was invited. They wanted to see the new tool they bought up close.
5
why is he there ?
Any country that wants to be associated with a Criminal
gets what they deserve .
3
Who exactly is setting DT's agenda? Who in the white house is telling him what todo? Where does he get off crippling solar energy... where are his ideas coming from? He has no real plan is really just to undo anything Obama did? I wonder who whispers... kill solar power...
2
...as he actively tries to turn us into just another banana republic with a despotic ruler.
"President Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower."
I say let Davos have him. The wannabe and the snobs. They're perfect for each other.
3
Where where are all the commenters in The NY Times who were railing against the elite in 2016 as the basis of their support for Trump?
Are they looking up a dictionary to see what mulligan means, or are they discussing family values with the Evangelicals? If the latter could they let us know which specific sin they are debating: adultery, lying, greed...
4
These are the same people who were sick and tired of Ivy League East Coast elites, so they elected one president.
2
Davos is a five letter analog for "sewer." Our Fakepresident will join the flow. The Davos event is not about excellence or stable genius, but about putting lipstick on the pig of global greed. "Best" is a word that can be deleted from the OED.
1
Gary D. Cohn, his economics adviser: “As the president has said repeatedly, America and his administration supports free and open trade, but it needs to be fair and reciprocal.” Why fair and reciprocal. Donald Trump did not get himself and The Trump org to where they are today by practicing fair and reciprocal. If he wants to MAGA he needs to go with the formula that got him here.
1
Trump's narcissism and low self esteem will be on display in his tweets. He is an ignorant boor who will never be accepted by the social elite. As my grandmother often said, money can buy a lot of things, but it can't buy taste or respect.
3
Unbelievable only 356 people have commented on this article; THIS IS EXACTLY WHO donald trump IS AS A SUBHUMAN BEING! Cannot wait for the antics of this trip!
2
Who's to say that the rest of the bloated plutocrats aren't almost as bad in every way as our Mr. T? Who can get a word in edgewise when they are all self-aggrandizing at the top of their tinny voices?
Watch out for them Russkie oligarchs, though. Will there be eyes on Frump at all times, so he can't pass off his little secrets to Putin? Or is that Jared's job?
1
...ohhh... pressing his nose against the window... like the Little match Girl?
Didn't she die?
Freeze to death?
Goodness, let's hope the Secret Service keeps him away from that 6-foot snowfall!
Of course, that 6-foot snowfall will be all the proof that he needs to justify his torching the Paris Climate Accord.
Well, I've felt for some time that Davos was/is over-rated, that it's just the Cute 1%ers meeting up with the Busy 1%ers, kind of like the Bohemian out here in California (except less peeing on the tree-stumps) (and at Davos the fake boobs belong to the women, not the male guests). The emptying of the White House to show up there really will give it the kiss of death, passe, so 90's.
Still - good article.
Is there any hope that they'll keep him?
2
What a pathetic little man Donald Trump is, so desperate for approval. Any vestige of morals or principles sacrificed to his pathological need to first ingratiate himself to, and then dominate everyone he encounters. So he flip-flops from ingratiating buffoon to blustering hate-monger, sometimes playing both simultaneously. Sad. Except he is the President, so it it is simply bizarre.
2
So, you guys did never invite me to your elitist club! Did you think I was not worthy of hearing your important ideas? I know; I know; the bankers among you were trying to tell me that they were aware of my bankruptcies and the fact that I was not a real billionaire; only a fake one. But look where I am now, you miserable snobs who think if one goes bankrupt six times or does not speak three or more languages, one is not worthy of sitting with you at the same table!
This time I have invited myself! You know, I can do so, because I am the most powerful man on earth. I am here to tell you that not only I am better than you, but I have the power to ruin you. And I am going to do so, if you don't laugh at my beautifully crafted racist insults or nod your big heads in agreement with my brilliant ideas. I hope you have not invited too many of those Africans here. don't forget; I expect to see your big smiles upon seeing me and hear your sycophantic praises on how well I am doing back home.
So, is someone here connected to the city hall? I like to know who I should see - no, no, who I should demand to come to see me - if I want to build a nice hotel around here. With so many rich people coming to this place every year, a nearby Trump hotel will be a gold mine! You should now agree that I am not only "very smart", but I am truly a "stable genius" at that!
2
I hope the super-wealthy reject Trump and his group of American Cabinet psychopaths and do not invite them to their fancy weiner roasts and champagne toasts. The whole world knows Trump is a fake president.
What would it take to get Trump to stay in Europe forever? No, that wouldn't work. Europe would never take him.
6
Sorry President Trump is a natural born citizen. He belongs to the USA, you probably voted for him, yet deny it.
Look President Trump will win the 2020 election, best u can do is to form a new party and try for the 2028 elections.
How about a huge avalanche!
I think Trump needs to be differentiated from the Davos elite. He is not a "business man" in the international oligarch sense of the term. He is an inheritor of his father's holdings who became a pseudo-celebrity as a shameless self promoter and played the role of the gold plated billionaire in the gossip columns. He also seemed to have lost as much money as he gained in his career of buying and branding. That said, I don't think that he was taken very seriously by those who influenced statesmen and moved markets. Here in America-- ironically-- there were enough citizens who didn't understand the difference between the two before electing a business President.
290
Agree. It has been calculated that if Trump had put his inheritance into a savings account and left it alone, he would have at least as much money as he has now. No bankruptcies that taxpayers had to pay for, no stiffed contractors who had to sue to get anywhere near the money they contracted for, no lying, no cheating, no cheesy drama. The business president can't even run his own office or make a decision that someone hasn't already told him. He doesn't have a position on anything except vile race bating, misogyny and enriching himself on our dime.
6
I think we all know why Trump’s attending: to meet Bono, who has notoriously spurned DJT’s overtures of friendship.
20
I think he's there for the cheeseburgers.
1
"He made a lot of money"? As _The Economist_ has pointed out, if Trump had taken his 1985 inheritance and invested it in the S&P 500 he'd be worth about thrice as much now as he actually is:
https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21693230-enigma-presidentia...
Some financial genius, that. And now he brings his talent for bankruptcy to the Federal government. Maybe we'll get lucky and Canada will take us over in the liquidation proceedings.
83
China has the mortgage, so they'll be taking over. Maybe they'll sell Canada Alaska.
Has Cruella persuaded Steve to get a Dalmatian yet, or does he share Trump's abhorrence of dogs?
Greedy, elitist sociopaths hobnobbing together in Switzerland, lording over a world where 42 individuals hold more wealth than 3.7 billion of the world's poorest.
Disgust doesn't even begin to cover it.
148
Having children just doesn't pay like it used to.
By accompanying Trump to Davos, at least Steve Mnuchin and his bride Louise Linton will finally be able to get that taxpayer funded plane ride to Europe which they were unable to bill us for several months ago.
123
A good one! thanks!
He is still not invited to the prom just crashing the party.
46
If he wants to make a speech, no one should show up, except Faux News who would be forced to point their camera at the empty auditorium. Everyone he is scheduled to meet should just go do something fun instead, with no telling him they aren’t coming. Then about an hour after the meeting was supposed to start have a staff member announce publicly that they never planned on going to the meeting with someone so unintelligent & belligerent. Then the staff member should give a happy laugh & say, ‘he really thought anyone one would want to have anything to do with him? Or those he sent?’ Shows how stupid he is. We didn’t want him before, we don’t want him now. Won’t listen, won’t meet, & will remove his cabinet members he sent to a large empty room for the duration.
13
Only Melania and Baron Von Trumper are not going.
Taxpayer boondoggle.
17
Well, I figure Melania and Donald are 1/4 of a full term closer to divorce.
1
Trump probably doesn't like it when Melania speaks Russian.
Yes, he's been invited to the party, but he's an outsider and offers nothing but a history of insults, lies and embarrassing tweets showing his lack of intelligence, racist views and ego driven behavior.
He will always be an outsider because he dosen't belong anywhere other than a tv studio.
23
Please many of us who work in TV don't want anything to do with a no talent boor who the women have to dodge, who bought his `stardom' and bullied his team. Anyway the real `stars' on The Apprentice were the apprentices, not the nasty bully called Trump.
Well, I guess being President is worth something!
Maybe, but nobody knows what that something is, and nobody would buy it anymore.
What is "America First" about moving the money from the Nations Treasury, the tax base, into the portfolios of stockholders?
Then this illegitimate imbecile showed off his psycho sickness again, by boasting about the rise in the stock market which he just robbed the rest of us to gin up.
Infrastructure, EPA regulations, Freedom of our choice with Net Neutrality, 800,000 people freed from having trump make them twist slowly in the wind.
These are very real things. The value of the Stock Market can disappear overnight, just like a Trump promise.
20
Wow....the entire Imperial entourage boondoggling to Davos.
Only Stormy Melania and Baron are staying home.
14
'' By any measure, he made a lot of money, the kid from Queens, maybe not as much as he boasted, but a fortune. '' ~ This is the VERY FIRST sentence which lost me. ( a falsehood that goes nicely with the man himself and the organization that is supposedly spurning him )
The man was given a fortune, borrowed a ton of money ( multiples there of, of that inherited fortune ) and then proceeded to become bankrupt multiple times. No one knows how much he owes ( net ) and to whom ( Russians ? Chinese ? Organized crime ? ) because he has refused to release his tax returns. ( like every other preceding office holder\candidate )
Try again NYT.
62
Yeah, President Trump is a true Nyer, why u so down on him? You voted, u got to make a choice. Stop the complaining!
The US Constitution does not provide for the President to release his tax returns. Too bad so sad for you! Deal, bitch!
Oh good! Another opportunity for our Idiot in Chief to insult work leaders and humiliate out country. Trump, the gift that keeps on giving.
24
The U.S. is the last superpower? Really? Have you seen China lately?
18
Davos! Wonder which mover or shaker he will bump aside, when they take the group photo?!
31
Trump is NOT the Groucho Marx at this club.
1
Crashin in where you're not wanted. The mark of those truly boorish never equipped with proper manners. All this grandpa cares about is money-green, says his "kid". Quite evident here.
11
What's that expression, "When worlds collide?"
5
I feel sorry for the First Lady. She can't even enjoy the perks of her role.
5
Sure she can and is getting a great perk. She gets to stay behind and get some much needed escape time from her overbearing and psycho husband. Priceless.
2
Jeremy,
I'm sure Melania considers it a perk to have him on the other side of the world.
2
Her perk is to be able to stay at home and get away from that madman for a few days. Trust me, she's thrilled.
1
Will Air Force 1 have a big enough cabin door for Trump's head to fit through or will they have to pry an emergency exit door off?
The ego will require lots of airlift but Trump's billionaire cabinet will fit right in with the snob class.
14
And we think that trump is out of his league here, with fellow Americans. He’ll have to rev his act to absolute overdrive to hide his ignorance from these people. Oh, too late. He’ll get pantsed daily and won’t even realize it. Painful, but fun, to watch.
7
They didn’t invite the Office, they invited the man. Everyone wants to see the clown at the circus.
11
Trump is pre-emptively being “beaten up” verbally by many world leaders who have already spoken at Davos.
I think the Trump contingent there is simply trying to prop up the leaning Tower of Trump - who is being excoriated by many in the international community, albeit in subtle ways which may elude the Stable Genius,
Take a look at the Guardian’s Live Blog for ongoing info. I found it fascinating yesterday and this morning:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2018/jan/24/davos-2018-merkel-...
I suspect Trump is heading into an Avalanche of nastiness in Davos. He is NOT the center of Davos attention. Believe me.
4
It's all about Trump. 24 hours a day. Talk about "serving the American People".
4
All I care about Davos is that chocolate cake with a side of cruise missiles à la North Korea aren't on the menu.
1
How many of these criminals will defect to Russia while in Davos?
6
This is just one of the perverted reasons Trump ran for the presidency...to show all of his detractors just WHO HE IS!! ...turns out...it's that he's the most despised man on the planet!
4
An illiterate, unread, ill-mannered, racist, misogynist, tv host con artist, who made less money in his businesses than if he had invested his inheritance in index funds.
16
I hope they have an Orb or something to distract him, like in Ryadh. Otherwise, he'll get us into some sort of trouble, I expect.
7
He's going to deposit the money he made from the new tax bill into a Swiss bank account
8
I guess you took that myth re "Swiss Bank Account" from a seventies James Bond Movie. Dirty money and the money-laundering industry, these days, can be found in Miami and Delaware, USA.
Our Fake President belongs at Davos as much as he deserves attending a vegan conference. (Sorry Donald, that ketchup you slather on your overdone steaks doesn't count as a vegetable.)
One more shining opportunity for Trump to embarrass the country and isolate America further from our allies and foreign friends. America First = America Last!
4
He's only going there to rub it in and tell them that he's made it.
They on the other hand will tell him to go sit in the corner like the little brat that he is.
1
Will Stormy be in town?
6
It’ll be a Stormy Wed. if she does.
Just the thought of Trump making a complete fool of himself, and by association, the United States, should be enough to make everyone concerned that our great country is being lead by a fool.
2
Every party has a clown; Davos 2018 will have a perfidious idiot clown. Even the dimmest of the other attendees are considerably smarter than El Presidente,and everyone knows it but him. He will reinforce every negative stereotype of himself and America. He will weaken the nation he pretends to represent, and in so doing he will do the bidding of China and Russia whether he realizes it or not, He will lack the sense to be quiet and listen, assuming he is capable of understanding. He is being touted as a salesman for America, but nobody buys from a dishonest broker, and nobody trusts him. If they engage with the dullard salesman, it will be to take advantage of the clown, and they will likely succeed. It requires only flattery. He thinks he is building walls at the expense of others to keep them out and hold wealth in; they are letting him build walls that pen him - and us - in while the wealth washes around us but no longer pools here. He is forging locks for them to put on the outside of the American cage, and he will never even see it. Nor does he care.
7
Has anyone checked on Stormy's whereabouts?
5
Exposes Trump as a wannabe plutocrat
1
Curiously, Melania will not go with. Maybe the porn star will.
Aren't we proud?
30
Putin is delighted to see the US flailing around and so are the Chinese! Trump is a disgrace to the entire nation. He and his Republican handlers must be thrown out.
23
I am sure that Donald's year long affair with a porn star won't be a problem.
6
It's the height of irony that at the very top of the NYTimes landing page there are the two following articles: on the left, an article referencing the 'leader of the world's last superpower' and right next to that an article about a sexual predator who has been accused by dozens of sexually molestation and abuse of power over decades.
Hmm...
3
Since Melania is staying home, Is Stormy Daniels joining Trump at Davos?
9
"...President Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower."
That man is no leader, NYT.
18
He's not a reader, or a leader, just a cheater. (With apologies to Herman Cain.)
2
Steve Cohn is nothing but a doorman. opening doors so that Trump can walk through and insult the world with Stephen Miller's dark speeches.
7
Maybe they'll eat him.
14
He's heading to Davos to change the narrative of his and Bannon's upcoming interviews with Mueller.
Plus, Melania must not be too pleasant to be around since the story about his relationship with porn star, Stormy Daniels, and subsequent hush money payment to her, has been in the news cycle. Goes to show that Trump wasn't faithful to her even within their first year of marriage. Cringe worthy!
11
I wonder what sort of speech Steven Miller cooked up for our embarrassment of a president. Everyone else at Davos knows what a fraud Trump is: he cheats at golf, he cheats at marriage, he cheats at religion, and he cheats at life.
23
Carl Schwartz, you neglected to state that he cheats American citizens, most of all.
1
"some of the lessons he has learned as a candidate and in his first year in office"
You can be a racist and bigot, with only 30% support of the population, and still be POTUS. That is the lesson he has learned.
19
He may be President, but he won't have a loving wife at his side.
8
He never did. Before, or after. Lonely man in the low castle.
I wonder if the recent reports and picture of Donald Trump's sexual encounter with the Porn Star Stormy Daniels and the 130,000 dollar hush money paid her, had anything to do with Melania's last minute cancellation to attend the trip with her husband.
Donald Trump may have a chance for a first in the Whitehouse, he could be the first President in history served with divorce papers while still in his term.
6
I wouldn't get too worked up about this trip if I were Trump.
You can dress up a clown in Tux and Tails, but... a clown is a clown is a clown.
10
Trump will be there out of place. Or he will lie as usually, he is a coward. This place is for fellow globalists that want trade, new technology, science.
Insulting UK, Montenegro, then Africa and Haiti will not make task easier too.
It is painful to see American economic relations to be destroyed, dollar position, political position do be destroyed by this team of idiots.
6
Get him some skis take him to the Parsenn and turn him lose.
6
He will be the dumbest man in the room, by far. At the White House he always has that moron Stephen Miller around to make him feel smart.
16
Reading these comments is like reading a series of "Knock Knock" jokes, typically told be twelve-year-old boys.
"Knock-Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Trump is..."
"Trump is who?"
"Trump is so stupid..."
The level of discourse is probably higher on Breitbart. Or the Sesame Street website, for that matter.
2
Instead of “global elite” how about “depraved, amoral, scum of the earth”. Tired of these freeloading rich! They are just as bad as Trump.
3
NYT: "Trump Heads to Davos, Elite Club That Long Spurned Him"
Dear NYT : It is precisely the contempt of the elite that got Trump elected.
You contributed your fair share
Why is this the top headline?
NYT is so biased. Headline should read, "Trump Heads to Davos".
Actually, headline should read, "Two Students Murdered by 15YO Peer in Arkansas". But that is not the NYT's agenda.
2
Sarah Huckabee Sanders says now is not the time to talk about high school firearm murders.
1
What an absolute embarrassment this man is. A Mousseline incarnate salted heavily in Hitleresque spices.
1
This is great all the up tight, bigoted, sanctimonious globalist elites have the undies in a twist. America First, MAGA!
They all understand that he is a moron, elected by morons.
7
$100 says Trump steals an ashtray, he's such a loathsome fool.
3
"admiration", for such a shameful excuse for a human being? Any sane person should see DT and the rest of his pathetic ship of fools as unsophisticated.
1
Putting on my conspiracy hat, I would not be surprised if Trump has planned some clandestine meetings with Russian oligarchs (his creditors) who are always at Davos.
64
Rachel Maddow showed a list of some 30 or 40 of them - two that caught my eye were Kaspersky and one of his associates. I think you nailed it.
22
Also on the list were Russian bankers who secretly met with Jared Kushner. I hope our intelligence agencies have people watching our untrustworthy president and his equally slippery son-in-law.
3
It is a matter of public record that Trump met with two senior Russian diplomats in the Oval Office and said he had fired Comey to make the Russian election interference investigation go away.
How embarrassing. A man rejected by his peers now represents the United States. The man, Donald Trump, continues to be rejected. It is his title that seduced the invitation. Sad.
23
"Never invited when he was merely a businessman, President Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower." As in 'previous' superpower?
Oh Lordy, I hope he seeks refuge there as the Obstruction of Justice case closes in on him! The cabinet members should stay too, just send the plane back to us!
52
Keep the plane. It's cheaper than then stupid wall.
5
If Trump makes them richer they will tolerate him.
14
Trump just doesn't realize that you have to be at least the 3rd generation from where the money is worked for before you are accepted into society. Its been this way since before the Vanderbilts. Thus his kids are no more acceptable than he is. Being able to buy, or con everything, doesn't mean you can have everything. Including class.
13
Oh sure, Trump should do just fine where quantum mechanics is table talk for Wall Street quants.
12
Trump was not invited. He was accepted to come as a head of state. Rest assured that Trump will be heard but not admired, and when he opens his mouth the audience’s eyes will roll. Once he’s done with being president he will again not be invited, not accepted and most certainly not admired.
19
Isn't it wonderful that the American President can state his views at an international forum while the Swiss welcome free speech and
everybody goes home contented.
You can still vote for whatever-
Many countries have no such options. Think about it.
1
Perhaps it was WC Fields or Grocho Marx who said that what he loved about America was that any idiot could grow up to be President of the United States.
As a practical matter, here in the US, two political parties, manipulated by the same money, perform a good cop bad cop puppet show, while blocking affordable access to national ballots to any competition that seeks to get organized.
To respond to the image provided, Trump is most decidedly NOT "committed to improving the state of the world".
11
In my home state our capitals' mayor wanted to join a private club, but because he shall we say had a shady reputation , they said "no thank you." It just so happen they were doing construction on their building, the mayor held up permit and delayed work. The club took it to court, needless to say he was over ruled by court. He never did get in. Too bad they (Davos) couldn't un invite him, for all the good he does.
2
I've been waiting seven years for a Massachusetts court to rule on a lawsuit against me by one neighbor against me and others of my neighbors for voting to allow my house to enjoy official membership in the neighborhood landing association, because it had been built after it was formed, and thus had not been listed in a trust document the plaintiff interprets to give him an arbitrary right to block it.
It is difficult for me to contain my contempt for US courts.
Trump must like the power-delicacies at Davos. It's is the ultimate two scoops of ice cream to our one.
5
Trump will be spared the worst of the commentary he inspires by the lack of vocabulary to understand it.
In Davos he'll still be an outsider, he'll still be ridiculed (even if only when he's out of earshot) as a crude uncultured lout. He'll never be enthusiastically received. In many, if THE most important, ways he'll still have his nose pressed up against the glass; even while he's President. This will, I'm afraid, enrage him. What direction that rage takes in anyone's guess.
17
Switzerland! Can Trump go downhill skiing? He’s knows everything about going downhill anyway. Best of all will be watch him hit a tree uncontrollably or roll down in a giant snowball. Hopefully he won’t cause an avalanche. Ha, ha, ha!
7
Mr. Trump has no idea what real people need.
11
Our so-called president just needs to continually be in the spotlight, so looks for any opportunity to meet his unquenchable need. He goes for no other reason. We know he's not really a deal maker, so it's for attention and opportunity to tweet.
7
Trump's businessman persona was non enlightening to Davos as a positive influence.
Trump's actions have shown he is not interested in foreign-born human beings who help better society.
Trump's actions have shown he is not interested in helping foreign countries economically thus bettering society.
Trump just wants the money.
5
“By any measure, he made a lot of money, the kid from Queens, maybe not as much as he boasted, but a fortune.” — it helps to get to start on 3rd base.
5
Maybe it's because I read the Washington Post in tandem with the Times, but I think it's a sure bet that the inflated size of his delegation signals that he will be diligently cossetted throughout the trip.
No spontaneous interactions with other attendees (security considerations, of course), certainly no open mike interactions with the press (is SHSanders there to run interference for him?); it's nothing other than a boondoggle.
And, given his disconnectedness and the fact that he's so far out of his depth, Trump will return from the trip and falsely claim it was a rousing success, because the only feedback he'll get is from his own claque.
13
“It’s important for the Davos elite to hear from the populist president who, although a billionaire businessman himself, is better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well,” said Peter Van Praagh, the president of the Halifax International Security Forum, another annual gathering.
Silly man. Trump doesn't know or care about anyone but himself. He has no insights into how regular people live. The people at Davos know exactly what Trump is. That's why he wouldn't be there if he weren't president. They will manipulate him for whatever they can get out of him and no more.
8
Those lecherous narcissists can have him.
Kudos to the author for his honesty: Davos truly is the "ground zero of globalization", a system that was designed by and for the wealth enhancement of the already wealthy, via the exploitation of the rest of us.
One would expect the corporate-media, owned by the wealthy, to try to convince us that globalization is a benign, naturally-occuring phenomenon, and it surely does every chance it gets, but every once in a while, the truth slips through.
1
"corporate-media, owned by the wealthy," -- owned by the stockholders, which YOU can be very easily right now.
Trump offers to all a strutting, preening, and sneering portrait of false self assurance. It is at once grotesque and captivating, but because the man is so intellectually vacant, morally missing in action, and disturbingly self absorbed, he is unable to discern between attention and admiration. We can expect from him banalities, boasts, untruths, and lies; that said it will be entertainment devoid of substance, a sugar high for his supporters, lacking in fiber or nutrients. The best we can hope for is that our national embarrassment won't be excessive.
6
Mr. Baker writes “Mr. Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower, commanding attention if not admiration.”
The phrase “last superpower” caught my attention. With China’s growing dominance on the world stage and India coming into it’s own as the world’s 5th largest economy, will an “America First” president fritter away our global leadership? Will the U.S. lose its superpower status because of Trump’s isolationist and inward looking policies?
It’s one thing to be the last superpower and quite another to lose that title and its responsibilities to a competitor that increasingly looks like an adversary!
1
Trump wants to go to Davos to attend the “galaxy of events hosted by corporations.” He's taking quite a few of his cabinet too. Sounds to me like the "galaxy of events" with Russian banks, businesses, etc. sound like an opportunity to ?. Hmmmm "America First" is now "America Eight". Not sure what opportunities will be available but then again, money talks and integrity walks. Just look at the GOP.
6
Where have our expectations as Americans gone? This last election has deeded the country with no leadership, no conscience, no truth at the top. Some think everything is fine because the stock market is up, however, this nation needs to take stock of itself. We are accountable to our national birthright. Yes, the World Economic Forum does not view the world from the perspective of ordinary lives and our current president cannot see the world behind him in the mirror. Our history may be deep, our victories many, but we are adrift on our legacy. It is our responsibility to ask questions and not allow ourselves an easy slide into complacency because we are numbed by events. We should expect more of ourselves.
3
"Never invited when he was merely a businessman ..."
Mr. Trump was never principally a businessman. He was and remains a fraud, a grifter, and a celebrity.
8
This trip is a waste of taxpayers money. This seems like sending in a clown that does not understand any of the information presented.
3
As heard on NPR this morning, Davos, according to Jamie Dimon, is where billionaires tell millionaires what the middle class feels. Pithy!
11
Trump's next job to bankrupt American. No successful businessman/women had six bankruptcies.
1
Stock market is booming, black employment is at record levels, business optimism is at it's highest, FBI, CIA, and others have come under public scrutiny like never before, North and South Korea are talking, i mean what does it take to give credit where credit is due?
Thanks, President Obama.
2
Why no mention of the thousands across Switzerland already protesting Trump's arrival?
"Trump is the incarnation of sexism, racism,exploitation and corruption" (ww.thelocal.ch)
4
Just as he shoved aside the Prime Minister of Montenegro at the Nato Summit, trump is insinuating himself at Davos to make a point. It is all about getting "even".
Wonder if he will ever be accepted as a member at The Maidstone Club on Long Island?
2
When he falls into the fondue pot, let us know.
5
As horrible as Trump is, he will be welcomed at Davos because there is nothing that money likes more than power. In other words, they don't have to like the person, they just have to cozy up to the office.
1
Note to world: don't believe a word this man says.
5
I hear that Trump is taking Roy Moore and Sheriff Joe with him.
3
Well, here we go again. Every time he gets on the world stage, we hang out heads in shame and embarrassment after he gets home. Get ready.
1
If any deference is shown to Mr. Trump it will be because of the Office of the President not for any triumph of his personal charisma, that much is clear. Any modicum of respect he has is because of his money and title. Take those things away and the man is nothing. Without his golden toilet, his trophy wives, and his leaning on a partriarchal society which lives to prize his worst traits, he is simply an angry and bitter human being who wants the world to adore him or suffer the consequences. Trump is such a tiny man of history. So tiny and so unworthy.
He already has foreign investment from Russia.
13
worlds last superpower - quote unquote - got to be kidding. Everyone knows now that China and Germany are the new superpowers. Russia is working us over so they can take spot number three.
18
Yup, Russia has us on the ropes. And trump has been paid to take a dive in the second round.
2
@OrangeSkies33: You clearly don't know Germany. We're not a superpower and don't want to be--we tried that in the early 1940s, and it didn't turn out well. We're pacifist, and carry no weight militarily. We do have an enormously successful economy and superior way of life, but we don't want to get our hooks into countries the way the USA has multiple army, air force, and naval bases on every continent. That we have influence within the EU is based on relative economics, not dreams of hegemony.
The thought that Trump is joining into this super-elite schmoozefest is revolting. Davos participants think of themselves as beneficent and enlightened, so it will be telling if those political and corporate power brokers can't manage some acknowledgement of the disaster lumbering into their midst.
11
Trump is an ubermenschen himself, with insight into human nature as awesomely inscrutable as the parameters artificial intelligence extracts from educational data sets.
1
Another hit piece on the President. The article deliberately neglects to mention what Trump hopes to accomplish at Davos that will benefit the United States as well as the reasons why other U.S presidents, save Bill Clinton, did not attend in the past.
Let's face it. Trump is the most honest representation of the United States this country has ever seen. His personality is quintessentially American no matter how hard our nation tries to deny it. A cursory look at American popular culture underscores the crass, hypocritical, vainglorious, naivete that defines the United States of America.
Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world has always treated America with contempt. They might do it with a smile, but don't be fooled. They didn't need Donald Trump to provide them with an excuse to be disrespectful toward the United States. It's been there all along.
6
Europe does NOT treat America with contempt, they and many others treat SOME Americans with contempt, rightfully earned. No US, Asian and with exception of one bank (Deutsche) has lent Trump one thin dime since 2008. Because he's a really bad businessman, almost all of his businesses failed, even cash-cows like casinos. He was also fined for money-laundering funds. Many EU countries and organizations are investigating him as part of money laundering schemes with Russians, etc. All the EU Intelligence Agencies are fully aware of his Russian connections regards US 2016 Elections - in fact, they warned the FBI and CIA about him. So please - cease the self-righteous outrage. Many international businesses continue to do business with US - they have before Trump, they will during Trump, and they will after Trump. He's not accomplishing anything other than exhibiting the TrumpEra of Classlessness, Corruption, Lying, Scheming, Scamming, Bigotry, Sectarianism, Misogynist ism - he and his live in a moral vacuum. The world knows that and so does most America.
4
Not so fast. Trump is making the rest of America look pretty darn good, classy even.
3
Trump’s personality is quintessential American? He’s a racist pig. Most Americans are not racists and definitely not pigs.
3
And is it just convienient "coincidence" that many of the same Russians who had contact with the Trump brigade during the election will also be at Davos?
20
There is no such thing as coincidence in politics.
We now know why he was never accepted and why he was always rejected. The fact that he is now the President does not change anything.
14
He will be spurned and snickered at behind his back. Serves him right. But at what cost to us?
8
We elected him, we deserve the consequences.
James,
He lost the popular vote by 3 million.
He only won the Electoral vote by 77,000 in three Republican-gerrymandered states.
Oh, and he had a little help from his comrades in the Russian government.
Trump is a pseudo bourgeois who thinks that because of money you can join the elitist club of the rich. Here's a true case of the old saying "money cannot buy you class"!
11
Money never got him in. He's using the presidency, again, for his personal gain.
2
Rachel Maddow nailed it on her Tuesday show. In addition to the seven cabinet heads the US delegation includes nearly 2 dozen people from all branches of government. And by the way, the Russian delegation will include nearly 2 dozen people as well. From every sector of Russia, business, government, department heads. While all eyes are focused on Trump who knows what will be going on behind the scenes that will never get reported on.
21
Calling Mr Trump the "leader" of the "last great superpower" may be a bit of a reach on many levels. He's no leader and our power is seriously being undermined.
19
The President in front of his name is all that makes him acceptable to these super-capitalists. Maybe he'll like it so well there that he will decide to stay. Too much to hope for I know.
3
Oh, who cares? We all know how this is going to end--with another story of American "exceptionalism," this time it will be Trump acting exceptionally boorish at Davos, being exceptionally inarticulate, yet again, Trump speaking in exceptionally low lexile level English, once more, and trust me, many of us are exceptionally embarrassed and ashamed of this vile, vulgar man who was somehow elected President. Whatever. More importantly, we have no idea how any of us can handle three more years of this nightmare. Apologies world and business leaders. If only some of my fellow Americans had bothered to show up at the polls, this might not be. But this is what we now have to contend with, and for that we are exceptionally sorry.
17
Donald Trump, though President, does not represent the vast majority of Americans in any way, shape or form. He represents maybe 33% Max. If anyone pays any attention to him at Davos, they should think to themselves and understand the truth of this suggestion, in almost every case, these United States are 77% opposite everything he says. Take any words that may come out of his mouth, and understand very well that the vast majority of us think exactly and precisely the opposite.
18
Just saw courtesy of Rachel Maddow the 'uge' list of Trump's Davos entourage. Defies reason. If not mistaken, cost per individual participants is 70K or more. Should the American taxpayer be paying for what is, after all, a private event?
I get that Trump who was never considered as worthy of an invite to Davos, is itching to attend but that we the people are having to pay for his safety-in-numbers travel gang, is seriously annoying. Note that the advance cavalry - The Mooch already in snow situ and mouthing off as of this morning.
15
I sincerely hope that the participants of Davos don't equate Trump with the entire American populace. His "America First" agenda is anathema to many Americans, and millions here are downright embarrassed to use the description "President" and the name "Trump" in the same sentence. If the coterie of Davos attendees is as smart and visionary as we're led to believe, then they will see through this shallow, uneducated fool who inherited his wealth and who managed to stumble into the presidency — to the horror and dismay of so many.
8
A little head-spinning to read about all the "lessons" that this "billionaire populist" has learned in the past year and from which the other attendees at Davos will benefit by being taught by the master. It seems to me that the only thing he's learned from or about his populist base is that they love to chant "Lock her up!" and as long as he can keep them entertained by giving them the opportunity to do so they won't notice how little they're benefiting from his take-care-of-the-one-percent policies.
7
Hasn't this bully in a china shop already broken enough things - including promises?
Caveat emptor.
5
I wonder if he will ask the people at Davos to invest in his wall, his big, beautiful, impenetrable wall. He can name individual bricks after the people who invest.
3
Maybe he can lead them in a chant of "lock her up" one of his favorite talking points.
there is no reason for #cadetbonespurs to be speaking at Davos. Since he miraculously won the electoral college with the help of Russia and apathetic voters, the only reason he is going is because he is the accidental president. He is despised by most serious CEOs and business leaders, and really isn't qualified to run a garage sale. He has been the worst president and most divisive American politician in history. Shame on Davos for not boycotting him.
10
I'm sure Trump will praise himself for making them richer with his tax cuts. Then he will remind them that he knows everything about everything. All about his wealth, power, and himself. Nothing else matters, just him.
5
It's amazing the things Trump can afford when the American taxpayer picks up the tab.
13
Although only a 'patsy' to facilitate the goals this "Club", 'the Donald' has been honored by the Empire Club, with a key speaking opportunity to flatter him and keep him on the hook to distract attention from the reality of their goals:
Clearly, this modern ‘killing cell’ of cancer in our ‘body politic’, a political/economic Empire of perverted crony corrupt Capitalism — which can now only produce its faux-profits for the disguised global capitalist Empire Club by all such profit and wealth being produced only through a massive and global ‘negative externality cost dumping’ scam, which destroys all the earth and its children to sweep all wealth to one tiny cell of the globalist ruling-elite is not sustainable at all.
As Professor Robinson most accurately wrote:
"The U.S. state is a key point of condensation for pressures from dominant groups around the world to resolve problems of global capitalism and to secure the legitimacy of the system overall. In this regard, “U.S.” imperialism refers to the use by transnational elites of the U.S. state apparatus to continue to attempt to expand, defend, and stabilize the global capitalist system.
We are witness less to a “U.S.” imperialism per se than to a global capitalist imperialism. We face an EMPIRE OF GLOBAL CAPITAL, headquartered, for evident historical reasons, in Washington." [CAPS added]
Robinson,William I. (2014-07-31). Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity (p. 122). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.
2
Just because he gets to go, doesn't mean they actually want him there.
6
Trump is the right entertainment for Davos. Excellent.
2
Clown for a circus.
Maybe he will get a cold and consider not going. One can only hope.
“It’s important for the Davos elite to hear from the populist president who, although a billionaire businessman himself, is better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well,”
“I hope President Trump brings with him to Davos a message to the business elite and to the political elite of some of the lessons he has learned as a candidate and in his first year in office, which is that making all of these issues real to people is the path to success,” Mr. Van Praagh added. “And although many of the people gathered at Davos intuitively understand this, they probably have a lot to learn from Mr. Trump.”
Says all you need to know about how reality based some of the participants are.
2
Mr. Trump just wanted to get away from the boring Washington DC and had a good time in Davos. What else is better than mingling and dining with all the elite businessmen of the world. Beside president Xi of China did draw a lot of attention last year, and also Putin will not be there. In other words, he is the only big huncho in town. I am sure he can outdo Xi's last year accomplishment.
1
Just like Daniel going into the lion’s den. Cool.
1
The attendees should all turn their back on him, but alas, the rest of the world leaders will show the respect due the office. Too bad he does not reciprocate
2
Rollback of straight jacket regulations as well as massive corporate and personal tax cuts have dramatically increased CEO optimism, global growth forecasts, global stock markets, hiring, wages and business expansion
USA unemployment rate has reached a 17 year low
African American and Hispanic American unemployment rate at a historic lows
Stock market at historic high
I think Trump is an imbecile (and so do you) but we can't deny this economy is booming and only the most blinkered MSNBC-Salon partisans would deny the role that Trump's tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks has played
2
He is riding on the form president's coattails.
1
Did you just credit Trump for Obama's economic expansion, job growth (getting slower under Trump)?
Same old Same old, Sucker.
1
Tax cuts. Read what CEO's are saying
The other attendees shouldn't hesitate to discuss what an imbecile Trump is when he can hear them.
Next thing we'll see is a Tweet from him threatening to nuke Davos.
3
The author of this little piece on Trump, Mr. Baker, did not prepare or do his due diligence. If he did he would never have written ..."never accepted, never respected". Wrong. Trump defaulted on so much of his debt to bankers, stuck investors with defaulted bonds, secured his collateral with tricks such as casino chips, broke his word, sued creditors when Trump defaulted, escaped from debt repayment and a host of violations of lenders, bondholders and bankers that it is laughable, or worse, for a serious writer and a serious newspaper such as the Times to trivialize Trumps deceits and defaults as "never respected". He was feared, avoided and shunned because he accumulated wealth as the "king of debt". He mastered a world of deceit and default by gaming a system, hiding behind an army of litigators to avoid creditors. Trump was to be avoided at all times, no banker could deal with him, just as no Senator or Congressman can deal with Trump. His art of the deal is lying, deceiving and reneging, he is the King of trash operators. He is not misunderstood or shunned by bankers, he is known and understood by them and they, rightfully, have his number as does any American who lived through the first year of his debased presidency.
9
Is it true that you have to be invited to join a "Secret Society" before you can go to Davos and go through a solemn ritual, which I believe includes being measured and outfitted for a cape and mask. Or is that the Justice League of America. Never mind, so confused with all these secret organizations swirling around Sean Hannity and Ron Portman's head.
1
Why do I already feel embarrassed at whatever he's going to say there...
5
America has shrunk from being the global "shining city on the hill" to a mean, cruel, gun-obsessed greedy place ruled by plutocrats and a profoundly narcissistic, willfully-ignorant president. It is a tragedy that saddens everyone, not just Americans. I never thought that in my lifetime I would bear witness to the decline and fall of an empire.
5
What does Trump have to teach these billionaires about making money? Well, first, you borrow investment money, then, you declare bankruptcy so you never have to pay back the loan. Secondly, when no legitimate financial institution will no longer do business with you, then, you go to Deutsche Bank A.G. and borrow cheap Russian black money that the bank is laundering for them. Given everything we have learned about these Russian oligarchy criminals and how they conduct business, Trump needs to change his business model because you wouldn't want to stiff these guys out of their money.
3
the rest of the world is growing faster than we are
2
Davos is such an elitist club. And elitist clubs lead to divided societies.
It's precisely this elitist mentality of wanting to feel "important" and "chosen" that creates divisions in societies - of the high class and the rest.
And it's precisely the reason why we lost our sight of how much Hillary was unappealing to many rural Americans while Bernie connected with them as well as many others.
It's ironic that Trump is now happily joining Davos after winning rural America. I caution all world leaders with democratic minds to not fall for the Davos elitist trap.
66
Bernie and Jill the Putin shill gave us Trump. Thanks a LOT!
6
So tired the narrative that Hillary, a working class self made woman is the elitist - but Trump the "billionaire" was the man of the people. Put Sexism and Racism - as your #1 and #2 - that is why white, working class America connected with Trump
8
Bernie Sanders said the same things over and over again. Anytime anyone asked him a complex question about foreign policy he was lost and so defaulted back to his forgotten working-class man mantra. Nor did he ever explain how he'd get his single payer healthcare plan funded by Republicans in Congress, nor how we'd pay for free college for everyone.
Anytime Hillary Clinton tried to practically and realistically explain how difficult this would be she was derided for it by the Left, who are just as culpable for Trump's victory as the yahoos in red hats and billionaires like the Mercers.
3
"World's last superpower"? That is debatable. Just like Rome thought of itself, when the barbarians were at the gates ready to sack and burn it.
As fro Trump's reception, at Davos, expect it to be was warm, as the temperature at the top of Mont Blanc in mid-winter. Trump has made more enemies, than friends in the past year. Even more after he has gone on a tariff implementation frenzy.
Expect Trump to not see another World Economic Forum, after he gets an ear ful and a very frozen cold shoulder.
28
The US has been transformed from an actual world superpower to 300 million people coping their leader's next emotional toggle.
45
It's too much. He's unwell and unfit for travel.
For the love of Trump, won't someone let the sick old man sleep every night in his own bed?
13
lol, not if Melania has anything to say about it:)
1
Nothing like schmoozing with your creditors. At taxpayer expense, no less.
52
an "Elite Club That Long Spurned Him" [Trump]?
How can a person (Trump) born into a $millionaire family who moreover now claims to be a $billionaire consistently posture himself as being spurned by this, or any, "elite group"?
Trump is a member of the "elite" and was born into the elite as a baby! Claiming otherwise is demagogic and willfully misleading those who somehow think Trump is a "populist".
And as a side-question, why does the press so eagerly lap up, repeat, and misapply the terms "elite" and "populist"?
Words have meanings -- and don't mean something else -- and breaking down the very integrity of words, terms, and labels and language, itself, is an Orwellian assault on honest terminology, truth, and objective facts, opening up the way to "alternative facts, "alternative truths, etc, etc...!
8
Elite for me means both money and class.
Nobody except IRS has a clue how much money he posesses.
What is known is that he ditched six businesses during his "career", right?
That doesn't make "elite" in my view...
I agree. Please stop calling trump a "populist" president, as if he has some sort of rational, philosophical, or even consistent underpinning to his statements and actions. He is nothing but a showman, willing to say anything to hear the crowd roar. And now we know that he never even intended to be president, he just wanted to build his brand. He has made a mockery of the office by just this fact alone. It is laughable that the Davos elite will hear from trump anything about understanding "what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well". The sooner his supporters wake up and realize this, the better. Hopefully this experience will inoculate them against the next huckster that comes along, and rather than cast an uniformed vote, they will just stay home--not the best solution I might add.
No doubt the Davos elite will just suck up to him, because the bottom line is all that matters in the long run.
I am sure most there will not be thrilled to see him. Those people are REAL billionaires and real business people not fake con artists with loud uncouth mouths, pushing people aside....trump has no class and all the money in the world will never fix that!
48
His wife, our First Lady, is not by his side which is very telling. Perhaps she's ready to take her son and walk away. He's humiliated her. I wouldn't walk by his side ever again.
I can't believe this terrible man is the President of United States.
87
I am no Trump fan but maybe, just maybe Melania stayed home because she has a son in school who may have a big test or project due this week. When she met the guy, he was married and she has known since day one that he sleeps around. Maybe she encourages it so she can be left alone:)
1
I won't believe it if we ever have a wonderful man as president.
Unfortunately, that can't happen.
American history will show Trump as an outlier.
For now we have to put up with him which is a far cry
from respect or admiration.
Rest assured the "global elites"will be bringing our Grifter in Chief
extra scoops of ice cream and smiles .
They will also be laughing behind his back the whole time.
32
Obama was an outlier. The only sane president since Carter, though Obama was no liberal. Just a centrist. Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II and now Trump. A full blown psychotic in the White House is the default setting.
1
Correct. Except it'll be chocolate cake. As long as cruise missiles aren't launched off the coast of Korea, I don't give a hoot.
1
Rachel Maddow reported last night that a very large group of Russian bankers and oligarchs will be attending Davos.
Robert Mueller may want to send someone to keep an eye on Trump and Kushner.
174
Well if RM said it .. it must be true correct?
Best you look at past performance -- she does a lot of dot connecting with few accurate outcomes.
2
GT,
Please cite what you're referring to. Thanks.
What is it about her that you fear the most, GT?
4
"Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower."
Some modest corrections:
1. Describing Trump as the leader of the US is a bit of a stretch. He may be the man who our electoral college made President, but he has shown no inclination to exhibit what any normal person would call "leadership."
2. All evidence would suggest China is well on the way to become the world's most powerful superpower, if this is defined by influence on a global scale.
42
I have to believe that most of those in Davos still don't accept trump or respect him and never will, despite his making a triumphal appearance. trump wants those in attendance to kowtow to him while he tells them exactly what he intends to do for America, regardless of the impact on the rest of the world. And, unless he remains on a very short leash and adheres to every scripted word written by others, trump is likely to come away even more resented and more disliked; I just hope the disdain is directed at trump and does not extend to the rest of us.
15
Weird thing is, Davos is for FORWARD THINKING people and groups, interested in our future. It's for people who favor a robust economy FOR ALL, not just the few. For those who KNOW our energy future can be more efficient, cheaper and less pollutive. For all of us who want religion put back into the privacy of your personal life and family; not welded to politics, governments, and terrorism. For those who want governments to regulate our food for PURITY and nutritional value, and not allow PLASTIC (true) to be added to what we eat. For all of us who want to WIND DOWN the war machines, not build nukes and threaten. For people who see the VALUE of an inclusive society. For all who want health care as a SERVICE of governments and industry; not a FOR PROFIT business. So what are ANY Republicans doing there? ESPECIALLY Trump!
17
Surely this is consistent with his continued out of touch attitude. He backs out of traveling to London for ridiculous reasons but doesn't mind wasting money for this exclusive club. He has no interest to run the government. Just add this to the list of his contrarian acts.
11
Trump had to buy his own golf courses to play on because the NY/Metro area 'elite' would not have him as a member at any of the country clubs. Trump's money has always bought him stuff but not respect. It's his own fault with years, years of pushing himself on Page 6 or Howard Stern with his gross commentary.
Fast forward to 2018, and Trump has the position now where the 'elite' HAVE to respect the office of POTUS but not HIM.
So far, Trump in Europe is not a good fit. His style of bully bluster and pushing don't translate well. He won't be there long and he will be too busy gloating to notice much.
The question I have is will Jared and Ivanka be there? Looking for money for themselves?
17
With all due respect to Anne-Marie Slaughter, I find it hard not to laugh at her prediction that Trump won't insult other Davos meeting attendees. That's EXACTLY what he'll do,... or at least that's what he'll do when he's not busy spewing lies, making ridiculous boasts about his accomplishments, pontificating about trade issues about which he knows nothing, blathering incoherently about fake news, FBI witch hunts, and illegal immigrants, or elbowing somebody out of his way for a photo op.
15
For a revolution to occur you need two thing. 1.) People not being able to procure basic food and safety. 2.) People with the physical means to revolt.
In the US the elite have nothing to worry about. We have things like guns (and hot heads), so we have the means to revolf. But food is so cheap you can eat for $2 a day (and anybody can make $2 pretty easily).. The poor will grumble when they see greater differences between the rich and the poor. But they will ONLY grumble.
In most areas of the world the poor cannot procure basic food and safety, but they have no access to weapons etc. in order to revolt. So again the poor can only grumble, as they sometimes starve.
Its kind of the bread and circuses thing.
So the rich elite at Davos have nothing to worry about. They can get richer and richer. But as long as they remember to let the poor have an easy meager existence, all is right with the world.
3
The billionaires of the world will learn from the master of deceit - how you can make people in need think that you are for them while giving billions of tax breaks to the people who have the most. I am sure they appreciate this trip.
5
Gee, that Mr. D'Antonio seems to have a pretty good crystal ball. About everything, it seems.
He knows what Trump will be thinking. And he knows what the business-media elite are going to be thinking, too. And how they're going to act, in public and in private, as a bonus.
Very impressive.
The "reporting" about Davos in this newspaper has been appalling.
The overarching theme at Davos is that globalization has failed, and that's why the world is "Fractured". Yes, you read that right: virtually all of the participants at "ground zero of globalization" now acknowledge that it has failed, and needs to be fundamentally reformed if it is to survive.
And reform must be done in the context of the most powerful technology revolution, ever.
There is palpable fear that the Age of Automation is about to destabilize an already fractured world even further, and there have been several "calls to action" for an immediate response to avoid a cataclysm.
Jack Ma, one of the most astute leaders in the world, stated it quite concisely this morning:
The 1st tech revolution caused World War I, the 2nd tech revolution caused World War 2, and we're now in the 3rd tech revolution.
Fortunately, the elites have a solution, which is why the title is "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World", the very same world, they somewhat sheepishly admit, that they themselves fractured.
Which is awkward.
I wonder if Mr. D'Antonio's crystal ball says they'll be able to fix the fracture?
2
So this is why he ran for office. He wanted to be let in places that spurned him. And for good reason(s). And the circus begins. Everywhere he goes representing us ends up embarrassing the whole country and usually the hosts.
9
Perhaps they will continue to shun him. These are serious people.
7
Here's hoping he will mind his manners this time around.
Donald: PLEASE, no shoving other leaders out of your way, or manhandling the staff people. Fix your tie BEFORE you go on stage.
And, put a lot of extra hair spray on. The wind can get strong this time of the year.
Last, but not least, remember that you need a currency converter for your Twitter box.
3
The Apprentice is a glutton for punishment. He was not accepted before and he will not be accepted now. He will be isolated and spurned in person rather than through the remoteness of no invitation in the past.
3
“It’s important for the Davos elite to hear from the populist president who, although a billionaire businessman himself, is better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well,”
You've got to be kidding me? How can anyone take Trump's "populism" seriously? Trump has no empathy for anyone other than himself and his fake "populism" is merely an excuse to spout hateful rhetoric and play to the lowest common denominator. What has Trump ever done in his life to indicate that he gives a hoot about "the common man"? Thinking people should not have the wool pulled over their eyes - examine the whole man; examine the whole history - before making glib statements about Trump teaching others how to care about common people. Let's elevate the people and not normalize the dumbing down of America and the emboldening of Tyrants worldwide.
8
Davos is overrated. I know someone who went there. Not a big deal...he was worth about 200M not more.
His Cabinet is there to “correct” the fool and he is there only to distract him from his political peril.
5
The Obama's had class.
The Bush's had class.
The Trump's have money.
7
The "take away" from Mr. Trump's one night stand in Davos is:
"Putin delivered this monster to the "Last Super Power'' and he serves as an example of what Putin is capable of delivering to you, at will, as well."
Definitely a Caveat Emptor fine mess he's gotten us into. Amazing what you can learn at a minority Electoral College. My bad.... Trump University. Tuition is truly chump change.
1
“...better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States ... ” No he does not.
He recognizes what gets the loudest applause and knows how to echo the people that now form his base. As he has always, he distances himself from them and is happy to exploit them. Claiming that he understands anyone, when he seems to not even be capable of understanding himself, which would take the ability of self awareness and of reflection is, at best a reach. This is not to say that he is not instinctive, he is, and, more than anything, it has contributed to his success.
Going to Davos, given who is, is as much about reminding us of his success, as it is about his worth to be amongst an “elite group” to whom he has always aspired to be with, like New York City’s High Society. He is not one them.
While he may have the money, he lacks the mind, the aesthetics and the forward looking vision to be amongst them. MAGA only affirms this, for it is not about how best to move America forward into the future and make it better, it is about returning it to a romanticized and an imagined past. For all his claims to the “best education” and the “best words,” he is a dunce. What he is is an Old Angry White Man that represents the same their mindset and is, contrary to what may of his supporters believe, attempting to maintain the old order, to which he himself aspires to. Yes, the 99 Percent do have legitimate grievances, for which he offers few feasible and new solutions.
1
"The world's last superpower"? As they like to say in Davos, that's rich.
1
If the Davos WEF meeting's motto is "committed to improving the state of the world", Mr. Trump has nothing of value to add there. They should lock the doors so he cannot get in, leave him out in the 6' snow banks!
3
Trump is so pathetic.
He was never invited before.
The U.S. president is invited so he gets to go.
Too bad everyone else there knows he's a shallow self-serving con man.
6
Why does The Times continue to describe the U.S. as the world's last superpower?Is this based only on the number of nukes? The economy? The well-being of its citizens? The U.S. is crashing, and other countries are stepping in. Yes the U.S. is a superpower, but it is not alone!
1
Davos wasn't the only one to spurn him. Melania cancelled out of the trip even though it falls on the Trump's 13th wedding anniversary.
122
Maybe she is trying to tell us something.
Unlucky 13?
As was recently shown on TV at a 'photo op' with leaders who attended the meeting, Trump pushed aside several so HE would be in the FRONT row of the photo. That's about all he can do again with the up-coming meeting in Davos. He MUST always be 'front and center' in anything he does. For the sake of the USA, let us HOPE he will ONLY read from PREPARED scripts, without throwing in any of his choice expressions (the worst one from this liar: "BELIEVE ME").
10
Some of the Davos Elite deserve Donald.
7
Love it. Trump crashes the party. Good for him. Those globalist snoots can chew on some American justice for a few days.
2
American justice? Pleeeaaase. American humiliation is what it'll be.
1
Those at Davos know that trump is a moron, a crude bully and a no talent ass-lown......they'll be laughing behind his back as he once again embarasses America on the world stage.............
Let's see how long it takes him to blow this up with his tweets.
11
America WAS the last superpower. No longer.
15
I really hope that these business and national leaders let Trump know exactly what they think of him. They should send him home with a bloody nose. His behavior since assuming the presidency is deplorable, and he needs to hear that from the big fish he has so long aspired to be. He's always been a con man, these people know it, and I hope they remind Mr. Trump of the reasons he has never been accepted by the elites. He's a boorish snollygoster without an ounce of class who won the presidency by lying and pandering. That will be a given in Davos.
12
My apologies to the rest of the world. trump is not my President.
46
Get ready to be embarrassed again, America.
Wake me up in November.
23
Wake up now! Work towards getting that vote out in November!
Brian,
Not to worry, I was joking.
This Davos vacation for Trump and his minions is just a boys club gathering to establish connections for future use once they are no longer employed by the government.
11
As a Swiss-American living in Switzerland, I shudder at the thought of Trump being less than 50 miles from my house spouting nonsense and embarrassing all Americans before the world. But I am even more embarrassed by the parade of Swiss dignitaries (President Berset and at least two other members of the Federal Council, Schneider-Ammann and Cassis) eagerly making the trip to Davos in the hope of getting some face time with the tweeter-in-chief. Shame on them!
24
Grab your chair, pop the pop corn, watch and be humiliated by the man America's electoral college - and Russia - awarded the highest office in the land. On the one side, Trump will be amongst those rich folks of his ilk. And, let's be honest with ourselves, he will not be the only, let us say, "questionably ethical" dude or dudess in the room. But...he has punched another notch in his ever expanding metaphorical and physical belt. He will enter with his entourage and his Mussolini-type expression, and proclaim, "Bow before me. I am the best of the best." But I would wager that this group will continue to look down upon him, as ironic as that is considering their own make-ups, and ever so gently nudge him to the back of their crooked line.
9
For all Trumps boasting of his business acumen, he appears positively schizophrenic when expressing himself. If he was not President of the United States, he would be laughed out of any serious boardroom, on any continent.
28
Ah, Mr Trumpie, they are going to kiss your ring, your feet, and need I go on?
But I assure you, you will always, ALWAYS, be on the outside looking in. Your net worth is lunch money to them, you have no intellect and most of all, you have NO CLASS.
I can just hear the collective cringe when you tell them that the wine list is incomplete because they omitted MD 20-20.
11
Davos is definitely the wrong party for him. I expect him to rant about the world treating him unfairly, as always. Theresa May must talk to him, since she is forced by Brexit to implement new free trade agreements as of March 2019. And Netanyahu must kowtow for the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem. Wasted time, but perhaps some good laughs!
2
America has a new grand task.
Our purpose is now to try to satisfy Donald Trump's ego.
At least we have a divine purpose.
2
Caddy Shack's Rodney Dangerfield character.
16
They will chuckle and sneer behind his back. They know he is not a great leader, just a bully.
38
Wonderful. If there’s one thing that globalists and billionaires welcome at Davos, it’s multiple bankrupts who’re unable to make it through a single week without tweeting like a drunk teen with ADHD and daddy issues.
No doubt he’ll come back saying what’s a Yuge success it was and - by the way, everybody Loved him and couldn’t believe how smart he is, which he heard all the time - but he was glad to get out of there because those Davos guys are LOSERS. Oh, and doesn’t Ivanka look pretty today?
He may be a moron, but at least his unpredictability has settled down into a rather reliable shtick by now. At least - given his cowardice and terror at visiting Yooorp because people there are very mean, very unfair to him - at least good old Bone Spurs is getting to see a bit more of the world than the self-enriching Trump golf courses he’s usually stuck visiting. Which is nice.
45
He's the Biggest Boor That Ever Walked The Earth and worse than that (though there's not much worse) - he can blow the Earth up. Though he is slowly killing all of us alive on this Earth by denying/doing nothing about Climate Change.
But, yes, wow. What a boor he is. It gets so completely tiresome and boring.
3
omg that was funny
1
I once sat on a jury where the majority of the jury insisted that frat boys were generally more honest than the typical person. I think expecting Trump to be out of place at Davos is a bit silly too, like thinking frat boys are honest. The people who attend Davos are the super rich. They aren't impressed with Trump because he is only barely a billionaire, but they are just like him. In most ways they are the same except that Trump is a little less successful by their measures of success. His disgusting habits and tendencies however are their disgusting habits and tendencies as well.
4
Resentful, vindictive, triumphalist, blowsy, swaggering, uncultured, loutish, and loud. Trump is a smoke bomb in polite society, and if he thinks that the presidency buys him entree into it, they'll politely show him why he's wrong. It's all just one more reason why this election is going to take us fifteen years to remedy.
15
My guess is he will be on his best behavior. Nothing unscripted. He has probably been warned extensively. He will be shown respect because of his position , not his being. The interesting thing will be whether or not he will be held accountable for the previous effluent that has flown from both his mouth, and his hyperactive twitter thumbs.
4
"[Part] of him will feel resentment that has long smoldered within…” That will provide fuel for this petulant child to speak in the most obscene way which will further embarrass the United States. Davos will give Trump his platform not out of admiration for his business acumen, but for folly to ridicule him; and to show the rest of the world how not to lead a country.
6
Another Trump farce about to take place on the world stage as he tries to bully the same foreign leaders whom he has already spurned and insulted during his first year in office.
A SAD day for America.
6
Trump can attend nothing he wants, but he will never be respected. He has always been a pariah to decent, educated, ethical people, and that will not change.
Let's see what kind of PERSONAL deals he tries to cut here, and how they will violate the Constitution. Might as well add those to everything else.
Such a disgrace!
3
Can't wait to see how this Davos visit plays out in rural Oklahoma or Michigan. Trump's continued Rob-Ford-like ability to pretend to be for the common man while acting in the opposite manner is quite the bit of showmanship.
1
"...which is that making all of these issues real to people is the path to success...”
I thought the path to success was doing something about all of these issues.
Expect this will be a flawless installment of this seasons Trump Show. Totally written, produced, directed by and starring DONALD J. TRUMP. Think of Ben Hur entering the Forum of Plutocrats declaring victory over his peers for ownership of the World Economy. He will disappoint no one.
1
None of that seems to have any basis in fact, no offense, Systemsthinker of Badgerland.
The notion that America is "...the last superpower..." only rings true if America is not under the rule of Russia - a possibility currently and very actively investigated by the special counsel. I would therefor urge the media to refrain from such phrases until the facts are established.
I personally believe it goes way beyond Donald Trump. How else could it be that Congress hasn't impeached a man who had an extramarital affair one month after his child was born to his wife? Okay, not an impeachable offense, but such offenses can be found aplenty with Donald Trump. Yet the GOP in Congress is unwilling to remove him, the good Christians they are (?).
No, I believe the Russian takeover of the U.S. government goes deeper, I believe the whole GOP, House, Senate, RNC, is affected, they somehow owe something to Russia and therefor Russia is the last remaining superpower.
---
Disclaimer: this of course is stupid, paranoid stuff, written in jest. But if elected representatives can claim there is a "secret society" within the FBI then I reserve the right to let my inner demons off the leash as well :-)
2
Trump will be so out of his league in Davos. He doesn't fit in as a world leader and he doesn't fit in as an accomplished businessman. He is going there solely to stroke his ego.
3
He's just going to Davos so he can stick it to the elite group of business people who've shunned him in the past. They still won't think much of him, but now he expects them to kowtow to him. So. Deeply. Embarrassing.
4
Once again, as always, birds of a feather flocking together in Davos.
Most of them are just checking in with their 'bankers' when there.
Events will be dripping in diamonds and Rolexes.
And in the words of Robin Leach, 'champagne and caviar dreams'.
Davos is a metaphor for wiping these billionaire's guilt ridden lives clean.
It is their way of showing penance. They may be nice and share their Gulfstream Vs.
1
They will tolerate him because they have to , but will still see him as the crass clod that he is .It appears the only leader who accepts him is Netanyahu (another leader despised by many in Israel) and of the same ilk. He's there to do business but not for America first , but for Trump first . Hopefully he won't embarrass himself by pushing and shoving to get to the head of the line , can't hardly wait to see !
1
They are wondering why Trump is there. Probably plenty of heat in Melania's kitchen at home. Better to hide out for a while and watch Swiss TV.
5
“It’s important for the Davos elite to hear from the populist president who, although a billionaire businessman himself, is better able than they to understand what real people need in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well,” said Peter Van Praagh.
Seriously Peter Van Praagh are you that stupid. Trump has no clue what real people in the United States need. He is trying to take away medical coverage, raising taxes on the middle/lower class while lowering taxes on the rich and abandoning global warming which will lead to the end of the world and not just the US at some point.
4
Worlds last super power? Does China know?
1
Let's take a head here.
1. The Davos international cabal rejects Trump.
2. The "business-media elite" rejects Trump.
3. "New York's social elite" rejects Trump.
Well, then, that's great news out here in Flyover Country where the basket of deplorables wallow in our unwashed, uninformed, uneducated ismistic morass of phobias.
Four More in 20/20!!!
Just remember: if one can fly over it, one can drop things on it.
In other words, Trump’s off on another ego trip.
404
Who cares what a bunch of snobbish billionaires think? Isnt this the forum the Bernie Sanders groupies love to bash? All of a sudden ppl care what they think of Trump? Here's a hint, they dont like him or trust him, never did, never will.
I'm only interested in POTUS getting substantive discussions going on deals that help the tide to lift all boats or at least as many as possible. his boorish behavior is not something I'm concerned about in a forum full of them.
31
You will be waiting until the cows come home if you are waiting for DT to "get[ ] substantive discussions going."
9
@Ron
To put the tax cuts in perspective with a rising tide: If your boat is being lifted 1 inch, those at the top are rising over 333 feet. For every $1 going to the bottom 50% or 80 million households, $4,000 is going to each of those in the top 0.1%.
The first 62% of the $6 trillion in tax cuts went to the top 0.1%, just 160,000 households.
The next 21% of tax cuts went to the top 0.9% 1,444,000 households.
The median US household makes less than $59,000 a year. If you get 10 bucks a week more in your paycheck, a mere $520 a year, they're getting $2 million more a year.
5
The only boats he is concerned about are his own mirrored, gold-plated buckets staffed with fawning courtiers and billionaire puppeteers who tell him how fabulous he is. Anyone and everyone else's boats can sink silently below the swamp, as far as he cares.
5
This is the area that Trump is supposed to be good at, trade and business. It's basically what he was elected to do. So far, he's been riding the economic surge created by Obama. It's now his turn to keep the momentum. If he can get a grip on his vulgarity maybe he will succeed. Maybe.
4
I wonder how may other big shots at the summit:
- are serial bankrupts;
- paid out 25 million to settle law suits for the fake college they ran;
- set up an LLC to pay a porn star 130K in hush money;
- cheat on their taxes;
- launder money for the Russian mob;
- hold a grudge against foreign made washing machines.
3
"Whatever else, he cannot be ignored now." Well yes, he can be...and should be.
13
Love it!
Trump stomping all over the Globalists and anti-Americans liberal "elite" gathered at Davos and proudly declaring "America First!"
1
At YOUR expense!
2
So you love that Trump is behaving as a boorish nitwit with no grasp of reality. Gotcha.
2
Hilarious.
You STILL don't realize that Trump IS a Globalist, himself.
2
I hope he is heckled, booed and shunned. Maybe bankers like him, but others present are for climate change legislation, do not support isolationism, and regard ALL people, regardless of color, as equals.
Trump is a vulgar, uneducated, ignorant, vile man.
I’m so embarrassed he is our President.
24
Dear America,
Prepared to be embarrassed (again).
22
I hope the Davos catering company brought in some well done cheeseburgers with ketchup and diet coke for the worldly, sophisticated, erudite Don.
How truly embarrassing he is - on every level.
14
"Mr. Trump will arrive on Thursday as leader of the world’s last superpower..."
Last superpower? I believe we are all aware of being indoctrinated as children, but I'm sure Peter Baker could ease off of the nationalist tone.
8
they'll reject him again b/c he's horrible and if not in the current illegit role he's in, wouldn't be there now.
8
There is a reason Trump has never been invited. These people know he is a fraud and a joke. They don't need him on any level but they are mostly civilized humans who will be polite. As for him.......good luck with his behavior.
16
I wait with bated breath for the gaffe heard around the world.
21
So Donald finally gets and invitation to the mountains of Davos
Not for his questionable billions but just for his grandiose
And they’ll serve caviar on silver spoons and not plastic like in Mar-a-Lago
While mingling with the ultra-rich who don’t need Russian banks to borrow
And he can say hello to humanitarian William Henry Gates
Who gives away more per year than Trump Inc. generates
And did it without millions from a racist father Fred
Using his creative mind, without a cheat or lie to get ahead
And this meeting will be the greatest that the world has come to view
While Huckabee Sanders over counts crowd size, sound like déjà vu?
Watch Donald push away dignitaries as he cuts ahead at the buffet
What did you expect from a buffoon who acts like child each and every day?
Though every one of his 1000 lies is documented by the Times and CNN
He has only a familiar retort, It’s all Fake NEWS, Make America Great Again!
9
Trump has always been on the outside. He may have made a fortune, but how many millions has he screwed people out of during his four bankruptcies? His isolationist policies have no relevance at Davos. Maybe his tax policy will score him some points? It has become clear that he doesn't represent the average American, so he can't be taken seriously on any level.
13
Hope Trump shakes up these globalist elites in Davos just like Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Caddy Shack with the country club crowd.
5
Trump does not have any personal influence. He is and always has been the guy unaccepted by the players he wants to surround himself with.
2
Appropriate comparison to an uncouth ,wealthy , out of shape golfing comedienne . Especially if trying to make a circus of the meeting, instead of getting actual work done is your goal. Hey , look at me, I'm a smart genius.
2
America first!!!! That should work.
3
He may be physically "in the door", but the other world leaders are holding their noses and holding their breath till he leaves and they can conduct business like intelligent adults.
14
This sort of reminds me of the episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where SpongeBob is anxious about whether he is tough enough to get into the Salty Spittoon, a hot club.
Except that was funny.
8
NYT - please report on the cost of this trip and how many Administration and Cabinets members are traveling to Davos. Such a waste of time, energy and money (btw I was opposed when Bill went to Davos).
Also how many reporters has the NYT sent to Davos?????
10
"The world's last superpower"? Isn't the NYT constantly telling us we are being supplanted by China?
4
He is going there as the 800 pound gorilla.
4
Trump is anything but an authentic envoy of the 99% whether in the US or abroad. Just take a look at the tax bill and every other piece of legislation and agency policy he has advocated, from healthcare to the environment to education. He is without principle or thought; he is a charlatan (see Trump University) and wants to be part of the .01%. Hence the guided facade of Mar a Lago. If he likes Davos so much, can we ask the Swiss to confiscate his passport and keep him?
6
His motto is "Always get even". The mentality of a middle school playground. We should never forget that.
8
So Trump will boast about an economy he has not yet truly impacted. And its an economy that is doing well because our trade doors are still open, and he hasnt truly closed them yet. Kinda awkward spot to be in...
I truly hope one or more of the other attendees schools him. Someone has to, as no one here seems capable, or willing...he needs a good slap upside his head by those who know better...
5
The only way Trump will get any cred in Davos is through the presidency, not due to his bizarre character and personality. He will always be a deep outsider when any standard of decency is needed for membership.
7
Is Trump going to Davos to validate himself? If he wants respect, he must earn it. Self-censoring his Tweets would be a good start. Then surrounding himself with trusted consistent staff to keep him informed on what is important and needs direction, instead of guns ablazing, taking potshots at what ever pops into mind.
2
Stop calling him a populist. He's not a populist, he just plays one on TV. They will wine him, dine him and then talk trash about him behind his back, just like the people who work for him do. He has learned nothing in the last year that would be of interest to a crowd of elite businessmen and women who know of the economic dangers apparent in ignoring Global Warming (the Paris Accords) and walling oneself off from trade (TPP), cooperation (Iran Nuclear Deal) and civil negotiations (No. Korea). To misquote Groucho " I would not belong to a club that would have him as a member".
15
Trump will be fine because, above all, his presidency has shown that he's a businessman first and foremost, as are most of the Davos elite. He is delivering on dismantling Obama's regulations of finance and the environment and he's handed corporations and the wealthy investor class a tax windfall. Other than when he's meeting with one or two African leaders, none of the rest of his behavior and jabber matters in Davos. Let's stop calling him a "populist." That was a mask for the campaign trail and one he tries to keep from slipping to maintain his base.
78
I read in Mother Jones that two-thirds of corporations do not pay any federal taxes as it is. Remind me, why did they need to have the tax that they do not pay reduced? How far below zero is there for taxes?
Oh, right! Some of them get money from the Treasury. How still of me to forget about depletion allowances and subsidies for the little family farms of Big Agra.
5
Trump is such a great business man that he has bankrupted only 6 times, let's hope he doesn't run the country like he has his businesses.
4
He's a real estate and casino developer with six bankruptcies on his resume. Later, he was a reality tv star. He's never worked for a publically traded company. His father's estate was worth between $250 and $300 million at the time of his death (Ny Times). The Trump family has been very private about their wealth. It's their right. Trump makes claims about his wealth but provides no supporting evidence. He called himself the "king of debt." No domestic bank would loan him the money for Old Post Office hotel.
1
Davos may be an elite gathering, but the available accommodations there are not very posh. Prepare for Trump to kvetch about how dumpy it is compared to his own garish properties.
3
I suggest a follow-up article totaling the cost of this trip, replete with hangers on and virtually the entire Cabinet--just submit a FOIA request. I don't question the value to having a high level US presence there, just the sheer size of the group.
I would guess that once security is added that 600-800 people will make the trip and several hotels will have been fully booked to accommodate them. Yes, that is what it takes for a president to travel abroad....according to my foreign service friends.
So, please let us know how these champions of the working class are spending our hard earned taxes.
13
I am reminded of President George H.W. Bush's comments about Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's attendance at some multi-national conference somewhere: "He was like a stray-dog at a garden party."
7
They will spurn him again. His button may bigger now, but his integrity remains microscopic.
7
I guess he's going to raise money for his next branding and hotel ventures, particularly since no US bank will make loans to him. And he's got to collect his reward from the Russians. Although he hasn't been able to deliver them from US sanctions, he's done a bang up job of destroying our democracy, and is moving forward to destroy our economy, not to mention our standing in the world. What an opportunity to talk with them with no Americans to interfere.
6
Pretty telling that the president is taking a virtual entourage of administration officials and their spouses to rub shoulders with the super wealthy of the world community. Real champions of the middle class? I think not.
6
For the life of me I couldn't understand why Davos would want Trump at their conference, and although intellectually, he will be out of his depth and likely to embarrass us, he also will be among the greedy rich and therefore completely at home.
3
Why is Trump, a protectionist (except when it comes to products he and his daughter sell), going to a global economic summit?
He's also bringing his entire staff and cabinet with him, which is going to cost taxpayers a fortune.
I hope someone at the Times will run a list of attendees traveling with Trump, and find out how much this trip will cost us.
7
No doubt Trump uses this event to promote and make deals for the Trump Organization; I doubt he'd even do so subtly.
The only economy Trump will manage to boost is Davos' McDonald's.
5
Mnuchin has just stated a weak dollar is good for the USA , very short term maybe, but longer term together with higher prices for raw materials , skilled people we will face accelerated inflation and interest rate increases which will increase the value of the Dollar.
The point is it is the reserve currency and an unstable reputation will diminish this and investment in the USA. Just when we are going to need investment to fund our ever increasing debt.
A recession is inevitable maybe the end of 2019 just in time for the Republicans to hand over another fine economic mess to the Democrats
1
America: of the people, by the people, for the people. For Trump, people means people like he sees himself, corporate people.
America first: of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation. I suspect 'the elite' at Davos will maintain cautious optimism, hoping to use the clown to their advantage.
1
I cannot, for a moment, imagine Trump comprehending any of the public or private discussions at Davos, let alone contributing to them. I look forward to the stories that will come out of this. I predict he cuts and runs early.
A great fount of bylines for reporters around the world who will comment, observe and react, but not get to attend the swell dinners at Davos--excellent food, diners don't have to pay.
Byline counts determine reporters' value and ability to remain employed. Do you think they're grateful for this chance to raise their counts?
1
I assume that Mr. Trump does not realize that foreign investment exacerbates trade deficits with foreign countries; just as his tax cut surely will.
Oh, this could be fun. Trump at Davos, the heartland of internationalism? It’s like a hunter who butchers and eats everything he kills, at a vegetarian convention.
But seriously, I wonder how this visit to Davos will go over with Trump’s “America first” base. And many of the One Percenters who will attend Davos are seriously worried about growing inequality. Specifically, the financial titans have been thinking what will happen when the huddled masses finally get fed up and decide to storm the Bastille or Goldman Sachs or whatever. What's going to happen when the One Percenters confront Trump, who has just made inequality worse by handing out millions in tax cuts to guys who are already on top of the food chain?
I’m sure this will hit the front pages, and I can hardly wait.
1
Increase the traffic on washing machines and solar panels and then expect the rest of the world leader to say you are doing a great job. That is trump at his best. Next order of business remove him from office.
1
How badly and in what ways will he embarrass himself this time? How many eye rolls? How much will he diminish the position of the United States, more than he already has?
And is Melania planning to divorce since she ditched this excursion at the last minute with a very implausible "scheduling conflict" excuse just a day after their anniversary and a week after the Stormy Daniels revelations among others) became public?
trumps sounds like a child when he tries to talk economics. Or anything of substance. He will be tolerated as much as they can tolerate him. He will not be listened to or respected. And he will be savaged in the international and US press.
1
"So when President Trump arrives in this snowy, mountaintop resort where financial titans mingle with heads of state in an annual saturnalia of capitalism, it may feel like a moment of vindication."
It is painfully obvious that Trump's main motivation is vindication. Just read his tweets.
3
The pro-capitalist ideologues at Davos absolutely deserve to be confronted with the consequence of their anti-poor policies. Year after year, wealthy nations like Trump’s seem to funnel all newly generated wealth to the top tenth of one percent. As we heard earlier this week, a little less than 50 people own more wealth than the poorest 3.2 billion.
It’s because of policies promoted at Davos.
That doesn’t mean protectionism is the right way, but globalization is why our factories shut down and folks in Haiti make a dismal $0.30 an hour. Davos, you reap what you sow. Have fun with the far-right reaction.
132
Can you think of a scenario - or any feasible economic model - where Haitians would be making more than $.030 an hour (short of a global minimum wage)? I don't agree with Trump by any means, and you're not wrong about inequality being a problem the world over. But indisputable and sad fact of the matter is that 35 cents an hour is better than what most people make in undeveloped agricultural societies. What's your proposed solution?
I'm confused. trump managed to funnel even more money to the 1%, and is only different by making the selfishness more explicit with his 'America First.'
trump is just riding the supposed 'far-right reaction' to bigger payoffs for himself, his family and his cronies. There is no evidence of trump understanding the plight of workers other than knowing how to push their hate and anger buttons. He feeds them fury and table scraps.
At best, his is a kleptocracy by different means.
3
Capitalism is not 'anti-poor' quite the opposite. Social democracy on the other hand is the ruse against the weak and huddled masses;a socialized democratic system bought and paid for by globalists who want free trade and open boarders. These elite on both sides of the political spectrum obsfucate the middle class to make room for penurious block voters for the governmental dole system. In return for sacrificing civil liberty you receive social programs, universal wages soon to come, no taxes because you won't make enough but if you do half will go to the government, and a university system paid for by your wealthy neighbor.
No the polices at Davos most certainly are not about capitalism in the strictest since, but global redistribution of governmental resources to the new world order.
I predict he will further embarrass the US with his classless comments and behavior.
I also predict he won’t receive a warm reception from globalists now that he’s starting to launch trade wars.
What plays at a typical Trump rally likely won’t play well in Davos. If he’s not accorded the respect he craves, will he wake up each morning and tweet out his grievances?
55
Yes.
2
Welcome, Disgrace-In-Chief !
Send him up to a black diamond ski trail in Davosand let’s watch this buffoon master the slopes.
“No one skies better than Davos Donald !”
225
Ivana will shoosh by and embarrass him all over again.
2
Socrates,
From my side of the border I suspect that Trump is as welcome as strawberry shortcake at Wimbledon. Trump is an excuse to the things that should have been done when the second Bush almost destroyed the world economy. Obama allowed them to kick the can down the road for eight years but the entire world is in agreement about Trump. When North Korea is more reliable than the World's greatest economic and military power Davos is where things will be done. I know how much pain you are in but the truth is for a world in tremendous need Trump is the Messiah who will lead us where we want to go provided we head off in the opposite direction.
3
did you mean 'skis'?
1
If I, a middle class man from Chicago, thinks of Trump's demeanor and behavior as low-life, surely the Davos crowd does too.
346
Of course they do. The difference is that they will say and do anything to gain more money and power. They can laugh at him later, in private.
4
I suspect he's not the only low-life at Davos. Money does not class bring.
2
So, he's lapping tariffs on washing machines and solar panel yet he's going to ask for foreign investment all the while yelling that foreigners are stealing American jobs....I.have.no.words.for.this.
365
"I.have.no.words.for.this."
Poseur and hypocrite come to mind.
26
It's called hypocrisy!
Trump grew up with it, and has carried it forward to himself and his siblings!
1
Can you please spare us the period after each word device? It.only.annoys.
2
Good grief. An intemperate man with a chip on his shoulder and deeply out of his depths. This is embarrassing already.
251
He will embarrass himself
He will embarrass the US
Any bets on how many hours in this will happen? I say day one
221
Day 1 was yesterday. International leaders did not spare the Donald their ire.
2
As you watch Trump strut among the lifestyles of the rich and famous remember; "behind every great fortune there is a crime". Americans have sent our great criminal to celebrate his ill gotten gains among his kindred spirits.
160
Thanks for your comment! Most of the people in Davos are probably as crooked and as deviant as Trump, they simply do it behind closed doors. my respect for men has reached ground zero..
2
What do you base this on? Davos is a gathering of tremendously accomplished individuals. No doubt some are evil or fools, but most are truly impressive. WEF, as an organization, works to find international solutions to the world's greatest challenges in fighting starvation, pollution, climate change and much more. WEF and its Davos meeting is so much more important than just an elite stereotype.
My hope is that the participants will continue to shun Mr. Trump despite his title. He was never part of the Davos crowd for the same reason 60% of Americans rate him unsatisfactory - an egotistical, lying blowhard.
I could continue with the adjectives but my comment is limited to only 1200 more characters...
113
Even Melania will not go there now! She’s likely been through enough shunning.
May the Shunning be the Greatest Shunning Ever!
4
He's such a narcissist that he probably won't even notice any shunning.
2
Most importantly, he doesn't pay his debts.
Anxiously waiting for another Trump statement about world trade that reinforces the correctly informed perspective on his ignorance to be followed by a "clarification" by one of his uninformed sycophants currently squatting in or near The White House.
36
I can't think of better person to damage US interests in Davos.
92
Donald Trump is making himself the poor man's Great Gatsby.*
14
Trump is the face of ascendant plutocracy in the US. One can quibble over his protectionism and idiotic tweets. The wealthy narcissistic notion that taxes are unfair and that trickle down just allows some of "their" wealth to slip away from them. These folks think that their political beliefs are the same as their over abundance of wealth.
21
Why is everything about this presidency, about Donald Trump.
The Russian interference is about delegitimizing him, according to him, not an attack on America.
The investigation into Russian interference is about him.
The FBI Director is about whether he voted for him.
The North Korean mess is about him.
The "deep state" is about him.
The surveillance on Russians is about him.
The releasing of his tax returns is about him.
The constant ferrying to his private properties on taxpayer dime -- a third of his presidency to play golf -- is about him.
The recent false missile warning on Hawaii was about him not even stopping his golf game to reassure people.
The shut down of our government is about him missing his party at Mar-a-Lago.
The fake populist going to Davos is about him being shunned by legitimate businessmen.
What a ridiculous narcissist.
President Trump, you work for us. You are a placeholder of the honor of holding the office of President of the United States.
Get over yourself.
220
Maybe he will love hanging out with all the elites and never come back.....sigh.
3
Welcome to the wonderful world of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It's always about him, all of the time. Sounds exhausting, doesn't it?
4
You are of course right that for The Don, this - and everything else - is all about him. He's an ugly narcissist.
But wait, for those watching Trump destroy America's dwindling global reputation, it's not really about the Toddler-in-Chief, but about the disorientation caused by the failure of Fukuyama's fantasy of the Globe becoming American.
Don't blame the clown who confuses himself with a fictional TV personality called Donald Trump. Work out why HE now represents America in a new polycentric postimperial world,and whether you can actually do anything to save your country from self-destruction.
1
Can we please stop calling Donald Trump a populist? He may talk like one sometimes, but his actions and his life style show him to be a plutocrat through and through. What's best for Trump is what's best for the country and the world.
66
Trump understands the common people according to one of the people interviewed in this article. Made me laugh out loud.
The front page headline reads: "Trump Heads to Davos with Message of Free but Fair Trade." I don't know what Trump is going to say to the world leaders he will meet (I doubt Trump knows himself), but I'm afraid it doesn't really matter because Trump's reputation, and thus his "message," has long preceded him.
Even if this is one of the rare occasions in which Trump manages to shock us all by reading a script prepared by his intellectual (but certainly not moral) superiors, the weight of his words is negligible when balanced against his reputation. Trump's entire adult life chronicles one shady deal after another. It is one thing to be a "tough" negotiator, but Trump has a personal reputation for expecting performance from one party to a deal while excusing himself from any obligation to perform himself. He expects contractors to render their services, for instance, but then balks at paying them. He expects Trump U students to pay their tuition, but then declines to provide the advertised expertly-curated curriculum and personal interactions.
His time as president has been no different. Trump routinely disparages U.S. commitments and openly contemplates reneging upon them; always looking for an out. He's known for saying almost anything to please the group in front of him, but then completely disregarding his word when it becomes inconvenient. What credibility does he bring to the table at Davos? Why would any non-sycophant in their right mind trust him?
71
With all due respect to the reporter, this president has begun the process of eroding the place of the United States as "the last remaining superpower." He arrives at Davos, having conceded -- at least for himself -- the honorific "leader of the free world."
18
Trump will be completely bored with any venue in which he is not the center of attention. He will have to step out of any presentation and look to converse & be flattered by Putin, Xi, and others who need certain favors from him. I hope he is not allowed to be alone with Putin especially.
23
Trump will undoubtedly give a bombastic speech to the Davos attendees just like he has been doing as President since his inauguration. Whatever he says in private or in public will only exacerbate his destructive effects on world politics and stability.
20
Perhaps he will reprise the erudite and heartfelt speech he gave to the Boy Scouts last summer. That was a humdinger.
1
Why do you refer to Trump as a populist president when clearly he is not? He is not for the people, he is for himself and perhaps the 1-percenters.
52
@Daphne DeMedici ~ My thoughts too. Peter Baker is still giving djt the benefit of doubt, not hard hitting criticism at all. And to refer to djt as a populist is absurd.
5
And why is he still referred to as The Leader of the Free World'? HHHEEELLLLOOOOO
3
Davos deserves Trump. They are the reason why we got him at all. Keep pushing more and more benefits for the 1 percent, and the 99 percent will keep opting for more and more radical choices to try to balance the scales. Until revolution is the only option left, I suppose.
562
You got him because of your faulty voting system. We don't want that parvenue in our country, not even for a visit. If anybody is stupid enough to make business with a fraud an conman, it's on them. Vile Trump is persona non grata for me.
5
@Agarre: Here is what some protesters are saying:
"We are protesting against both Trump and the WEF. The discussions between the richest one percent of the world and a man who fuels an aggressive atmosphere towards women and minorities has no place in Switzerland," said Tamara Funiciello, president of Young Socialists of Switzerland." (www.thelocal.ch) According to the report, "The event was joined by anti-globalist and environmental activists, as well as members of Kurdish and Palestinian organisations" (www.thelocal.ch).
1
Agree. We as a country have been entertaining ourselves to death while the Republican party has been quietly and illegally gerrymanding voting districts to manipulate outcomes of elections. Our hope is that there is now enough rage about this that we can introduce better balance into our "representative" government and repair the damage after Trump is out of office.
3
Unbelievable......this man, our so-called President, representing this great country? I look upon all his voters and his party with disgust. Because those who cast their lot with him basically sunk us all.
27
You describe trump as leader of the world's last superpower....what about China? They may not have our far-ranging military but economically they are definitely a superpower
16
World, we're really, really sorry about this. Work around him as best you can and we promise we'll do better next time. Regards, America
146
If companies thought they'd get a decent return investing in the US, they would not need to be asked to. But with our consumers' income stagnating or declining in real terms, maybe they think it would be a poor bet.
11
Each world leader, viewing Trump's pathetic attempt to make nice after isolating the US globally and himself at home, tells him he should have paid attention to that "overrated" Hamilton:
" . . . What comes next?
You’ve been freed
Do you know how hard it is to lead?
You’re on your own
Awesome. Wow
Do you have a clue what happens now?
Oceans rise
Empires fall
It’s much harder when it’s all your call
All alone, across the sea
When your people say they hate you
Don’t come crawling back to me"
11
I'd love to be a fly on the Scotch bottle at the Davos bar when the real leaders of the G-8 start yakking about our POTUS with an IQ about 60 points lower than the rest of them.
106
I thought New Yorkers were the personification of “cool” and “hip;” so why does Trump always come down on the wrong side of “being?”
By going to Davos, he lets everybody know that he really did want to be there. If’ he’d stayed away, now that he can go, look how hip and cool that would have been.
Trump does a of dumb stuff, but can’t he at least pretend to be hip. I can take dumb—for a while—but to be both “un-cool” and “un-hip” all the time reflects very badly on the country that gave the world those states-of-being.
5
“It’s so fascinating that he wanted to go,"
not really - he's itching to get out of the country - he thinks everything stops (including his mounting troubles) when he leaves.
Mr. Mueller thinks otherwise.
28
It used to be that the best part of attending WEF was the confidence that
the people you would meet are worth meeting.
7
Trump,s reasons for attendance leave one with the uneasy feeling that he wants to show the attendees he is president and they aren,t. This trip is no more than an ego booster for the pretender.
21
Trump at Davos will be viewed by people of considerable substance and intellect as the loud mouthed buffoon he is. Oh, they will flatter him to get what they want but once he is out of earshot the laughter will grow. Trump will tweet lies about his encounters, all to make him look good, and then his staff will have to "clarify" what actually happened. It doesn't help he is taking Sleepy Ross along.
110
Last I looked- he’s President. The leader of the free world and judging by the stock market and companies investing in the USA - Trump’s vision is CRUSHING the view of the commentators on this thread. Amazing how the same commentators adopt an intellectual and moral superiority to our President, but what exactly, of consequence have any of these backseat drivers, Monday morning quarterbacks accomplished? Oh that’s right- crickets!!! MAGA!!! BOOM!!!!!!
2
The M]market reflects the immense tax savings just bequeathed to corporations and other businesses. Investment mangers also make out quite well, as they still can pretend their income is really capital gains.
The upswing doesn't give a clue as to how the country will be affected in the mid to long term. At the moment, it is increasing the wealth gap , and hasn;t increased wages.
Where have you seen any list of foreign companies having decided to relocate to the US since his election?
3
DKE:
Stock Market? Did you forget 2008? What goes up must come down. Trump has put everything(and everyone) in place for it to happen again, "bigly", it's inevitable. Get ready and when you have to reach into your pocket to bail out these thieves AGAIN, then make your comments about how "The Tweetser" is doing.
5
Perhaps we should offer an advanced apology to the Swiss for whatever barbaric or insulting conduct or statements Trump makes? Remember, he is supported by only 38% of Americans.
54
The Davos forum only represents the .0001%. If that's the case, Donald Trump should feel at home with his buddies.
11
If anyone has been uncertain about whether or not the World Economic Forum is largely irrelevant with respect to any true impact or influence on really improving the state of the world by "engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas" as its mission says, Trump's attendance should put their minds at ease. It has long been a showcase for the privileged to try, for a few days, to salve their consciences and convince themselves that they are doing something good for the world. It's an exercise in indulgence and self-satisfaction. The amount spent on many of the side events and parties is simply obscene. Trump should feel right at home.
18
Last superpower? Last of the old time superpowers. China rising, same as we did, based on large economic reach, and less on military power.
12
The world's liberal democracies would welcome free and fair trade. We can start by re-establishing something akin to the Bretton Woods agreement that leveled the playing field so smaller economies could protect their citizens from large economies. I am sure many if not most Canadians would welcome a return of a national oil company like Petro-Canada that is government owned and controlled and gives us a seat at the table when big oil plots our future.
August 15, 1971 was the day Nixon put an end to fair trade and established USA and US Corporations dominance in trade.
I am certain Mr Trump will no longer take credit for the markets with a return of Bretton Woods, his immigration policies and free and fair trade.
3
“Learn” from him? Whatever publicly comes out of his mouth will be Mnuchin’s words. Calling him a chameleon misses the point that he is an empty suit.
24
Bringing the America First doctrine to this audience is out-right bizarre. Are all countries now First? And why bother with a world economic forum if that is true?
Trump will look like a fool, these folks are way out of his league. They probably actually consult economists, which Trump really doesn't, they hated the tax bill and the solar cell tariff also makes no sense from an economic viewpoint.
21
Given that the World Economic Forum is a backslapping club devoted to praising the super-wealthy and uber-connected, attended by those who can not figure out why we hate them so much, Trump will fit right in.
9
I think I am in Recovery! I no longer care what he does!
58
Congratulations Lois! I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting there. I've realized everything he does has temporary, limited impact, and that 99% of what he does is just stupid and pointless.
3
That's not recovery; that's denial.
7
Questions abound.
A reception of world leaders in his honor? Who is sponsoring this? There's ample proof that Trump is not exactly Mr. Popularity among that cohort, as the article--among other reports--makes clear.
Bracing reminder that wheeling and dealing has real-world effects. Okay, jury's out on effects of tax cut on non-one-percenters. Real world effects of Trump financial policies aren't that great: bankruptcies, tuition fraud, failure to honor contracts, prevarication on job creation, loss of health care, likely diminution of entitlements, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
What leaders might learn from Trump, God forbid, is that to make economic issues real to people, all they have to do is lie, use abusive language, insult, and bully whoever, whenever possible. Some will listen and believe.
12
About that "world's last superpower" subhead on the home page: time to let it sink in that that distinction no longer exists, and that we live in a multi-polar world now. Europe and China are at least as influential as the U.S., and are poised to become more so as this reactionary administration and Congress take us back several notches.
The process of moving to multiple reserve currencies, in its early stages now, is evidence of this trend, and as we withdraw from vital international cooperation, such as the Paris Accords, we leave the rest of the world free to move on without us.
15
Hold on, the U.S.A. isn't the "world's last superpower". The U.S.A. is merely the most recent superpower, there will surely be others that replace us later, and we are surely on the downslope of our dominance.
Anyway Trump will have nothing to offer at this snobbish club meeting. He has no financial acuity, no business credentials, his two greatest talents are lying to people and weaseling out of debt. He will definitely be boorish, people will laugh behind his back, but they'll all unfortunately be too polite to laugh in his face.
I expect nothing to come of his attending this thing, but at least it will keep him from tweeting very much for a few days. The world could use a break from his moronic tweets.
16
I disagree. I think we will see twice the amount of tweets from Trump while he is at Davos. Both of the "I'm a winner," ilk and the corresponding, "everyone else is a loooo-ser" variety.
Please, all he'll be doing is slapping a lot of backs and shaking a lot of hands while he tries to sell them on investing in his real estate properties. He's not going to represent America, he's going to represent himself and any interest that makes him money.
164
He doesn't shake hands (spreads germs) . It's the only thing I agree with him on.
Oh, but when he does touch - and pat shoulders and caress hands he won't release - - it's extremely creepy.
2
With his rejection of any climate change initiatives, a gradual withdrawl from UN responsibilities and rejection of any meaningful trade discussions, Trump and his administration have unilaterally decided to distance themselves from the rest of the industrialized world, hence, other than perhaps making a spectacle of himself, his trip to the forum really serves no purpose.
Luckily for the rest of the participants, it seems they will only have to put up with him for 24 hrs. and then he will be gone.
20
Participants at Davos, two things:
1- We apologize in advance
2- We beg your sympathy.
3 years and counting....
33
Ah but it's not 3 years left. It's, at most, 2 years, 362 days.
3
There was a large demonstration in Zurich Monday night directed against the WEF in general and against Trump in particular. It seems he is not welcome anywhere.
35
Free trade is free trade. Fair trade is rigged trade.
1
Free but fair trade is something we can all get behind.
It is not fair trade when our leading companies FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) are not allowed to do business unless you surrender to the atrocious conditions of censorship (looking at you China) but in return allow everyone to do any business in USA.
It is not fair trade when American Insurance companies like Geico and world leading retailers like Walmart are not allowed to own more than 49% of local ventures (looking at you India) but in return allow H1Bs to outsource IT and software.
It is not fair trade when countries place arbitrary rules and regulations to discourage imports while freely exporting to the largest economy in the world (looking at your Japan, Korea).
Question is does the current administration have capability to put sustained focus on this topic to achieve results or will it be a scattershot of things that play to the base in USA and accomplish nothing long term.
5
He will be in so far over his head in this forum - reading scripted speeches, but not actually comprehending anything going on around him. Who could possibly take him seriously or trust anything he says? He'll surely behave in his typical arrogant, clueless manner, embarrass the U.S. and cement the perception of everyone there that he's joke... just not the funny kind.
39
The founder of Trump University may well get buried in an avalanche of scorn at Davos.
19
He looked foolish at the UN before other world political leaders so why not repeat the act for global corporate heads as well? Will he be meeting with any Russian Oligarchs while he's there too?
18
The Davos crowd "generally find Trump to be a troublesome and boorish man." Is that all? I don't think these guys will touch him with a ten-foot pole.
15
Our ostensibly populist President has always longed for acceptance by those he now sneers at as “ the elite”. Advocating his “America First” agenda may be the stated purpose of his trip to Davos but, in truth, this trip is no different from his rallies in West Virginia, he longs for approval. What a pathetic representative of our country.
26
His presence is evidence that the US will shortly be a superpower no longer.
16
Trump will fit right in with the rest of the guests. Nothing could be further than the truth. No matter what he will say, he is an international embarrassment, and his attendance won't change that.
7
If Trump had any self-awareness, he'd be too ashamed to attend this forum. He is so far out of his depth that it's risible. Luckily for him, he is oblivious to just how vulgar and ignorant he really is. He can make a fool of himself with no discomfort at all.
Yes, world. America elected this cretin...
771
Well put, Jasoturner. Except that America didn't elect him- the electoral college did. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that American History elected him, the history that saw some people as 3/5 of a human being...like some presidents I can think of.
9
R Mandl,
I agree-The Electoral College is now a threat to our democracy.
1
No he was not elected. He was placed in office by only a minority of voters with massive Republican voter suppression and Russian hackers to finish the job.
8
Like the citizens of the United States of America, the invited attendees of the Davos World Economic Forum are stuck with Trump for the time being. Trump no doubt will be his usual, brash, unpredictable self, for many of us an embarrassment.
182
Not embarrassment for me any more!! He is a grown man responsible for his own embarrassments!
6
"brash" is one thing, but Trump is "crass"
2
Why do I get the feeling he's going to do something to embarrass the entire country? I'm cringing in anticipation...
494
"I hope President Trump brings with him to Davos a message to the business elite and to the political elite of some of the lessons he has learned as a candidate and in his first year in office,"
I think the point is that he HAS NOT learned anything and yes, he will do something to embarrass us all.
15
such as push people aside so he can be in the front row when a group photo is taken ?
27
I imagine him trying to tear people’s arms off while “ shaking hands” and pushing and shoving to the front of every line. It’s possible he’s learned that those have become risky moves now that people are on to him. It will be interesting to see if he’s capable of trying something new, however heinous
11
Donald Trump reminds me of the character Rodney Dangerfield portrayed in Caddyshack. A rich loudmouth who likes to flaunt his tackiness around the snobby elite. Major differences are that I am not rooting for Trump and he is not funny at all.
406
That character was independently successful, easygoing, and generous. These are the opposite of Trump.
18
Nailed it!!
Cross Rodney's character with the George Steinbrenner from "Seinfeld", and you've got a virtual Trump doppleganger.
The financial titans at Davos are not Trump’s people. They aren’t anyone’s people. They are Power, nothing more. You can’t be a friend to Power, you can only fight it or succumb to it. If one wishes to pretend power is your best bud, then have at it. Just don’t expect Power to reciprocate. It’s not what Power does.
152
The problem with your analogy is that Trump "thinks" he is one of these people.
14
But Trump now represents the greatest power. Unfortunately, he has no idea how to represent or project it effectively. He never has. His horizons are incredibly narrow, his awareness is negligible-to-zero, he has shown himself thoroughly untrustworthy, he represents a combination of perfidy and stupidity wrapped in a veneer of self-perceived genius. In other words, he is nothing but a clown in the room. At most he will do what Putin and Xi ask of him explicitly. At least he will do what they want by reducing the effectiveness of American soft and hard power by sowing confusion and derision as a buffoon. This is not about friendships, it is about alliances and influence. Trump has never - in his entire life - accomplished either in a meaningful way. He simply isn't equipped to do anything strategically. He can't even tell when to be quiet.
7
Sorry, but even powerful people use their money and power to help others. Not all of these Davos attendees are selfish moneyhogs or treasonous politicians.
3